


The Last Summer of the Boys

by RainbowDonkeys



Series: NCT at Camp Purple [3]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: M/M, Summer Camp, WILL be almost painfully fluffy, WayV - Freeform, awkward kun, camp counselors, extreme fluff, weird truth or dare, xiaokun bc kun deserves someone, yangyang is a bratty rich kid
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-27
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:54:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 30
Words: 50,797
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23337211
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RainbowDonkeys/pseuds/RainbowDonkeys
Summary: Gone were the days when the boys were just young teenagers, trying to figure out who they really were at a summer of fun. They'd grown up, into (sort of) adults, running the summer camp that had changed their lives.
Relationships: Dong Si Cheng | WinWin/Nakamoto Yuta, Jung Yoonoh | Jaehyun/Kim Dongyoung | Doyoung, Kim Jungwoo/Wong Yuk Hei | Lucas, Lee Donghyuck | Haechan/Mark Lee, Lee Jeno/Na Jaemin, Lee Taeyong/Chittaphon Leechaiyapornkul | Ten, Moon Taeil/Suh Youngho | Johnny, Park Jisung/Zhong Chen Le, Qian Kun/Xiao De Jun | Xiao Jun
Series: NCT at Camp Purple [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1748224
Comments: 301
Kudos: 235





	1. Welcome Back, Welcome Home

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, it's time to finally finish up the nct summer camp au trilogy I started a little over two years ago! You can read the first two parts on this account or on my aff page (same username)
> 
> This is based on an exo summer camp au trilogy I wrote ages ago. You can find them on my aff page
> 
> I'm also writing a loona version of this au! You can find that on this account or my aff page. 
> 
> I hope you enjoy!!!

Doyoung and Jaehyun were finally done setting up camp. Now they could take a moment, silent as they sat around the dining hall, waiting for everyone else to arrive. 

After all of these years, they were running the summer camp, together, that they had spent so much time at as teenagers. It had been a while since they had all been back; as they all stopped going once the oldest in their group couldn't be campers anymore. They had waited so long for everyone to be able to be a counselor, and now that summer was finally here. It felt a bit surreal. 

"God I missed this place," Jaehyun said softly, reaching for Doyoung's hand.

"Me too," Doyoung answered, looking around at the faded walls and the ugly plastic tablecloths that had once been so familiar. Luckily the two of them could take this time to reminisce. Since they went to college together during the school year, they had been able to prepare most stuff at college. Everything else had been done in the early morning here at camp, driving down at five in the morning to get everything ready. 

"And we're the directors too," Doyoung added worriedly. "Do you think we'll do a good job?" 

"Of course. I mean, who else is responsible enough to run a whole camp?" 

Doyoung smiled. "True." 

"Anyone in here?" A friendly voice shouted. Doyoung and Jaehyun immediately grinned. 

"Johnny! Taeil!" They yelled, the four boys running to hug each other tightly. 

"It's been way too long," Doyoung said.

"It has!" Taeil answered. They pulled away to look each other over; after all they hadn't seen each other since their high school years, and now all of them were in college. Doyoung and Jaehyun shared a smile; Johnny, who was already a giant, had somehow grown taller, while Taeil remained the same height. 

Noticing their giggles, Taeil pouted. "I know I'm still short, please don't rub it in. Dating Johnny is a reminder enough." 

Everyone burst out laughing, Doyoung and Jaehyun beckoning them to sit down at those old tables. 

"How have you been? What have you both been up to?" Jaehyun asked. 

"We've been going to college together, after this summer we'll start our last year," Johnny explained. 

"What's your majors?" Jaehyun asked. 

"I'm doing education, and he's a music theory major," Johnny answered. "We got an apartment together a couple years ago-"

"Oh, we're getting an apartment together in the fall too! How is it?" Doyoung asked. 

"Oh my god, so much better than the stupid dorms," Taeil explained. 

"The privacy is so nice, if you know what I mean," Johnny added. 

"Yes. That," Taeil agreed. "But really we got it so we could have pets." 

"Jeffery and Fluff-Fluff!" Johnny cried, whipping out his phone so he could show Doyoung and Jaehyun photos.

"Our cats. This is the first time we'll be away from them for more than a few days. We left them at a friend's but I'm honestly a bit worried." 

"I miss them already," Johnny spoke forlornly. 

Doyoung and Jaehyun shared a look. 

"Anyways, what about you guys? So you're getting an apartment in the fall?" Taeil asked. 

"Yeah," Jaehyun said proudly. "We go to school together too. He's an english lit major and I'm in for human resources." 

"Someone had to be the practical one," Doyoung added. 

"Eeee!" A loud voice screamed. The four boys turned to look at the door when suddenly, a large person toppled them into a giant hug. 

Doyoung pulled away from the hug to look this person over. "Chenle?" He spoke with surprise. 

"Hi guys! Omigosh I missed you all so much!" He yelled. 

"We did too," Jaehyun answered affectionately. "How old are you now?" 

"Seventeen! Gonna be a senior this fall!" 

"Is this the right place?" A quiet voice spoke up, and everyone else looked up. 

"Jisung!" Chenle screamed, running over to him. He looked like he was about to hug him until he stopped himself in his tracks, a bit of pink dusting his cheeks. 

"H-Hi Chenle," Jisung said shyly. "I missed you a lot..." 

"I missed you too!" Chenle answered, and Doyoung could see the hesitation in his eyes. 

"Are they still not..." Jaehyun whispered before Jisung poked his head around. 

"Hi guys! Wow, you all look exactly the same," he said. Taeil glowered. 

"You...you do not. How old are you now?" Johnny asked. 

"Sixteen," Jisung answered with a smile. 

"Come back here you two," Doyoung said with a smile, and Chenle and Jisung raced over. 

"You both look so grown up," Taeil commented, and the others voiced their agreements. 

"Oh my god stop!" Chenle whined and giggled. 

"You guys are still so embarrassing," Jisung added. 

"So, where's our cabin? Aren't Jisung and I in the big group this year?" Chenle asked. 

Doyoung and Jaehyun shared a smile. "So...we thought it would be weird if some of us were campers and others were counselors. We didn't want anyone thinking we were playing favorites," Doyoung started. 

"We needed some more staff anyways, so we just thought you guys could... be counselors too. Now I know it's technically against the rules, but the camp has the money to pay you guys a little bit under the table, and no one would have to know. Does that sound good to you?" Jaehyun asked. 

Chenle and Jisung shared bright smiles. "That's perfect!" Chenle said. 

"Yeah, gonna make some money," Jisung added quietly. 

Suddenly, their ears all perked up as they heard voices coming from outside of the dining hall. 

"Who is it?" Chenle asked. 

"Guess who's back bitches?" A loud voice suddenly yelled. 

"Hell yeah!" A slightly less loud voice added, followed by incessant giggles. 

Johnny's face fell. "Donghyuck and Mark." 

"Woo!" They both yelled, walking into the dining hall hand in hand. 

"Quite the entrace," Doyoung commented. 

"Would I have any other way?" Donghyuck answered. They shared a smile, and everyone leapt up to give them hugs. 

"How are you guys? Did you come together?" Taeil asked.

"No, but we got here at the same time," Mark answered. 

"We spared you guys the lovey-dovey reunion and just did it in the parking lot," Donghyuck added. "And we are great! I'm finally fucking done with high school!" 

"He's coming to my college!" Mark said with pure joy. 

"No more long distance!" Donghyuck cheered. 

"Wooo!" A loud voice screamed, and everyone fell silent and turned to look at the door. Yukhei's massive frame stood there, a pout on his lips. "I thought we were all screaming." 

"Yukhei!" Chenle yelled in his loud voice, and he came into the hall to give everyone a tight hug. 

"How are you?" Mark asked. 

"Pretty good. Just doing my health and fitness major, on the football team, chilling with my frat." 

"Are you excited to see Jungwoo?" Jisung asked with a sly smile. At that Yukhei's face fell completely, and everyone looked around worriedly. 

"Actually we broke up..." he said, uncharacteristically quietly. Doyoung was about to ask more when he heard another person step into the dining hall. 

"What's up guys?" 

"Yuta!" Everyone cried, and he ran over to give everyone a loving hug. 

"How are you?" Doyoung asked. 

"Ah, same old same old," he answered, and everyone looked around. There was a question on their minds that none of them wanted to ask. But they had to. 

"Do...do you know if Sicheng's coming?" Donghyuck finally asked in a low voice. 

Yuta sighed deeply. It had been three years since Sicheng had simply disappeared. He stopped responding to texts and calls and even letters; he didn't even open them. Nobody knew what had happened or where he was. 

"No," Yuta answered with another sigh. "I know I'd be the person to know, but he hasn't spoken to me either. I've done everything short of marching to his house and asking him where he is." 

"We invited him to come... we're okay in terms of staffing if he doesn't, but....we wanted to leave a place for him," Jaehyun said. At that, Yuta smiled a little bit. 

"Hey guys!" A voice suddenly spoke from the doorway, and everyone looked up and smiled. 

"Jeno!" Donghyuck screamed, and Jeno made a face but laughed. He was about to go and hug everyone when he felt a tap on his shoulder. 

"Baby," a deep voice mumbled. Jeno turned around and his jaw dropped into a smile, looking over his boyfriend of almost five years. 

"Jaemin," he said excitedly before they wrapped each other in a tight hug. 

"It's been so long," Jaemin mumbled. 

"Never again," Jeno answered. "By the way your voice got really deep. I couldn't really tell over facetime..." 

"Do you think it's sexy?" Jaemin asked, pulling away to wink. Jeno stiffened a bit but nodded and smiled. 

"Um, of course Minnie..." 

"Come over and give us a hug!" Doyoung yelled suddenly, the couple laughing and going over to hug their friends. 

"You two are all grown up as well!" Taeil cried. 

"We're starting college in the fall," Jeno said proudly. 

"Together," Jaemin added, grabbing Jeno's hand. 

"Where are my children?" A voice suddenly bellowed. Everyone turned back to the door to see Taeyong and Ten standing in the doorway.

"Chenle and Jisung!" Ten squealed, following Taeyong's words. "You guys look so grown up!"

"They're in high school now," Johnny spoke proudly. 

"So big and grown up!" Taeyong cried. Jisung and Chenle looked at each other awkwardly. 

"Where is my hug?" Ten asked. Jisung and Chenle laughed before running over to give Taeyong and Ten their hugs. 

"I missed you dad," Jisung mumbled before moving away and turning red. "Uh, I mean, Taeyong." 

"You may be in high school now but you're still a cutie," Taeyong answered, ruffling his hair. 

"Okay, but where the hell have you two been?" Yuta finally piped up. 

"You two have been almost as bad as Sicheng," Yukhei added, and Yuta looked away uncomfortably. 

"We've answered some calls and texts!" Ten cried. 

"Some," Jaemin mumbled. 

"Well....we've been traveling," Taeyong spoke, and he and Ten shared a sly glance. 

"No school?" Doyoung asked. 

Ten laughed. "Hell no!" 

"Who cares now. Just get the fuck over here!" Johnny cried, and everyone shared tight hugs. 

"So nothing has changed at all," a voice that definitely belonged to Renjun said. Without even speaking, Jeno and Jaemin immediately tackled him in a hug. 

"You were supposed to come in with us!" Jeno whined. 

"We got here around the same time," Jaemin added. They all stood up and Renjun brushed off his pants. 

"Well, I was dropping my girlfriend off at Camp Pink. You know, the all girl's camp across the lake." 

"Ooh, Renjun's straight, Renjun has a girlfriend, Renjun likes girls," Donghyuck teased, and Renjun gave him a look. 

"How are you still so annoying?" 

"That's my job Injunnie!" 

"Just come give us our hugs," Mark interrupted, and he laughed and ran over to give them all hugs. 

"How are you Renjun?" Chenle asked as Renjun found a seat amongst the many people in the dining hall. 

"Pretty good, glad to be out of high school, excited to start college." 

"Is your girlfriend coming to the same one?" Taeyong asked. 

"Yup, and so are these two," he answered, gesturing to Jeno and Jaemin. "Wish me luck." 

"Guess it really does suck being single here," Kun suddenly spoke, standing in the center of all the people in the dining hall. "Nobody even noticed me come in!" 

"Kun!" Everyone yelled, squishing him in a giant hug until he was laughing and screaming at them to get off. 

"I'm excited to be here. It'll be nice to have some fun in my life." 

"Are you in school? What's your major?" Yuta asked. 

"Management," he answered, and Ten made a retching noise. 

"Is everyone here?" Doyoung asked. 

"No. We're missing Jungwoo," Mark said. 

"And Sicheng," Yuta mumbled. 

"Oh that's right," Doyoung responded. 

"Guys, okay, Yukhei and Jungwoo broke up, so when he comes in don't make things awkward," Jaehyun explained. Immediately afterward, they heard the sound of feet crunching on grass, and a little head poked through the doorway. 

"Oh!" Jungwoo spoke in his tiny voice. "Everyone's here!" 

"Jungwoo!" Everyone yelled, squeezing him into hug except for Yukhei, who hung out back at the tables. Doyoung noticed them avoid each other's eyes. 

Once everyone settled down they all sat at the biggest table, crowding around Doyoung and Jaehyun to hear what was about to happen. 

"I guess that's everyone," Jaehyun said softly, but slowly, the noise of panting breaths became louder and louder. Everyone turned around to look at the door, and suddenly, Sicheng came bursting in. 

The dining hall fell silent. Nobody knew what to do, what to say. There was Sicheng, who none of them had heard from in three years, inhaling and exhaling like he'd just run a marathon. Once he caught his breath, he sat up. 

"Yuta," he said softly, immediately running into Yuta's arms. Everyone just watched in shock as Yuta squeezed him tight, no hestitation. 

"What's going on? Where have you been? Are you okay? Why are your clothes so dirty?" Yuta spoke worriedly into Sicheng's ear. 

"I'm okay now," Sicheng said, pulling away from Yuta. "I'll tell you all everything else later. Campers are going to start arriving in a couple hours, right?" 

Doyoung checked his watch. "Yes, but that can w-"

"No, no, it's alright," Sicheng interrupted with a smile. "Give me a hug and then let's get ready." 

Hiding their tears they each give Sicheng a tight hug, welcoming him back. Once they were done Yuta sat Sicheng down next to him, wrapped a protective arm around him, and waited for what was next. 

"Alright guys!" Doyoung spoke up. "We decided everyone's roles in camp a while ago. No switching and no complaining because even though you may not like it, we know what's best for you." 

"Yes, we do," Jaehyun added, shooting Donghyuck a pointed look. He waggled his eyebrows back. 

"Okay, let's start with the age groups! Sicheng's gonna be the five to sevens counselor, Jungwoo will work with eight to nines, Johnny with ten to twelves, Donghyuck with thirteen to fifteens, and Mark with the sixteen to eighteens! Any questions?" Doyoung asked. 

Slowly, Mark raised his hand. "Um, I'm like...barely older than my age group." 

"You'll relate to them better! Moving on," Jaehyun responded. "Next, we have camp caretaking crew! We'll have Kun and Renjun as our camp cooks, and Yuta, Taeyong, and Ten on maintenance!" 

"Yes! I hate kids!" Renjun cried. Kun nodded happily. 

"Sexy shirtless time 24/7!" Ten said, and he and Taeyong high fived. Yuta shrugged but Sicheng smiled to himself. 

"Alright, next up are the, um, other people! We've got Jeno and Jaemin as our lifeguards," Doyoung started, and Jeno and Jaemin shared an overjoyed smile. "Chenle and Jisung running the art shack," he continued, and Chenle and Jisung shared a shy smile. "Taeil will run the store, and Yukhei will be our adventure counselor!"   
"Free ice cream!" Johnny cried. 

"Wait, what's an adventure counselor?" Yukhei asked. 

"Did you make that up to give everyone a job?" Donghyuck added. 

Doyoung and Jaehyun ignored Donghyuck. "The adventure counselor is very important," Doyoung said. "You'll help out age groups when they have activities in nature such as hikes and lake visits that could be dangerous, and the age group counselor needs a bit more help. You can also fill in when people need their breaks, or if any campers don't like their daily activity you can lead them in something else." 

Yukhei thought for a moment before smiling. "Yeah! I'm the substitute!" 

"Alright guys listen up!" Doyoung cried after a panicked peek at his watch. "Campers are coming in two hours! Are we ready to make this the best summer of their lives?" 

"Hell yeah!" Everyone cheered back, and got to work. 


	2. The First Day

After Doyoung and Jaehyun had sent everyone else to start setting up, Chenle and Jisung lugged the last of the art supplies down to the art shack. Key in hand, Chenle unlocked the door and propped it open. This is where he was going to spend most of his time for the next month, and he couldn't wait. This was the best place in camp he could possibly spend so much time in. 

He turned back to look at Jisung, setting down a box full of clay and heaving. This is the person he was going to spend most of his time with for the next month, and he couldn't wait. This was the best person in camp he could possibly spend so much time with. Despite the distance, they had remained best friends for all of these years, just counting down the days until camp began and they could hang out. 

But Chenle didn't want to be best friends anymore. He hadn't wanted to be best friends for five years, at that point. He was old enough now to want to kiss, want to hold, want to be with Jisung, as far more than just friends. But it couldn't be. He couldn't ruin the magical friendship they had worked so hard for. 

So he put on his signature bright smile. "Ready?" 

Jisung grinned back, and Chenle almost died. "Of course." 

~~~~~~~~~~

The campers weren't arriving early enough for breakfast but they did need lunch, so Kun and Renjun had raced to the kitchen to begin cooking for everyone. As it was their first time in the kitchen, and as Yukhei didn't have anything else to do, he had snuck in to help them out. 

They were chattering loudly, laughing and reminiscing on all times, when Kun and Renjun fell silent. 

"What is it?" Yukhei asked with furrowed brows. 

"What...what happened with you and Jungwoo?" Renjun asked. 

Yukhei sighed and looked at the countertop. He knew people would be curious; he had to talk about it at some point. But even nine months later, thinking about it still hurt. 

"So, even though we were long distance, everything was perfect all through high school, right? We were super happy together, so we decided to go to the same college. And that summer was all great too. The first week of college was perfect, actually...it was so nice to be with each other in the real world, right? Until..." Yukhei sighed again. "Jungwoo and I are really different, right? I'm loud, he's quiet... I've always had a lot of friends, he's always just had a few close friends, we have really different interests... but that's always why it always worked. We complimented each other. But when we got to college, it all changed. So I'm on a football scholarship, so I had to join the team. And I wanted to. Plus, my brother was in a frat and he loved it, so I joined one too. Not one of those awful ones where they're dirty and mean to girls, but a nice one. Jungwoo supported all of that, at first...he's a theater design and technology major so he took this art class and made these friends...they're nice! They just didn't like me...they thought Jungwoo was, I dunno, uncool or something for dating a frat boy....he didn't listen to them at first but more and more cared about what they thought... and then... he dumped me." 

Kun and Renjun looked at each other in shock; they didn't think Jungwoo would ever do something like that. 

"I mean... he didn't have a lot of friends in high school, right?" Renjun asked, and Yukhei shook his head. "Maybe he was just so excited about having friends that he lost track of what was important." 

Yukhei nodded. "I tried to introduce him to my friends, but it was hard for them to relate to each other... I know he likes having friends that share his interests..." 

Kun and Renjun frowned; it was weird seeing Yukhei so down. But this was Camp Purple. Anything and everything gets fixed here. 

~~~~~~~~~~

"You guys can be like mini counselors!" Mark said, forcing a smile on his face. The sixteen to eighteens just glared back at him.

After introductions and everything, Mark took his age group to hang out and get to know each other. They had immediately decided they thought Mark was lame, and half an hour of talking had not done anything to change that. 

"Dude, why would we want that? We are sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen year olds who came to summer camp to be campers. The only reasons we would do that would be to get out of having a real job, and see our camp boyfriends. Done," one of the campers responded. 

Mark almost put his face in his palms when he heard voices walking towards his group. He looked up to see Donghyuck leading a pack of thirteen to fifteen year olds, clearly hanging off his every wanted. 

"Donghyuck! Donghyuck! Donghyuck!" They cheered. Of course they loved him already. Mark wanted to scream. 

"Hey Mark! How's it going?" Donghyuck said smugly. Mark and his campers just glared back, and Donghyuck laughed. 

"Finally, you've earned the respect of the thirteen to fifteens," Mark teased, reminding him of that first year when the thirteen to fifteens wanted nothing to do with him. Donghyuck made a face and walked on, and Mark giggled to himself. 

He then turned around and sighed at the glares of the older campers. This would be a tough summer. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Finally, it was time for the counselors to eat. Contentedly, Taeil got his food, waiting for his boyfriend to show up. 

Taeil knew Johnny had arrived when he slammed his tray down on the table. Taeil looked up to see Johnny somehow looking like a mess already, hair sticking up in places, eyes exhausted. 

"How's your first day been, babe?" He asked tiredly, shoving food in his mouth. 

"Oh pretty good. The campers are all pretty busy with first day stuff so nobody's been in the store yet except other counselors. I'm just setting up, getting the lay of the land. How about you? How are your campers?" 

Johnny made a face. "They're...they're twelve. Well, ten to twelve. But most of them are twelve." 

Taeil made a face of pity. "I see." That was all of the explanation he needed. 

~~~~~~~~~~

For Jeno and Jaemin, this first day was already going so smoothly. Giving up on trying to make them like him, Mark just took his campers to the pool. Since they were older, Jeno and Jaemin didn't need to keep as close of an eye on them as younger kids, so they had time to just talk. 

"So baby," Jaemin spoke quietly and lowly, leaning over in their tall lifeguard chairs. "Are you excited for what we've been.... talking about?" 

Jeno stiffened, gripping the arm rests of the chair and down into the pool. Once they had turned sixteen, Jaemin had asked him if he wanted to.... do it. Once they were all back at camp as counselors of course. 

Jeno didn't want to. He had known it then, when Jaemin had asked him a couple years ago, but he had hoped he would change his mind when they were together again. He hadn't. He wasn't ready. He knew that. 

But Jaemin didn't. When Jaemin first asked, he had responded with a very enthusiastic yes, and since it was over text, Jaemin of course believed him. And every time it had been brought up Jeno had given a similar response, and Jaemin thought Jeno was just as ready as he was. But now they were together, and it was getting harder and harder for Jeno to keep lying. But he couldn't just make Jaemin think he changed his mind, right? And he couldn't disappoint his sweet boyfriend, who had never pressured him or done anything without a very excited yes, by telling him he didn't want to. So he had to keep this up, and hope he and Jaemin would never get the chance. 

"Of course," Jeno answered, mustering a big smile. "I'm super excited." 

Jaemin grinned back and they both turned to watch the campers. But when Jeno wasn't looking, Jaemin gave him a confused glance out of the corner of his eye. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was the first day, and already some camper's bed was broken. Taeyong and Ten were fixing the bunk in one of the eight to nine year old cabins. 

"Do you think this is how it'll always be? Stuff breaking down every day?" Ten asked. 

"There's three maintenance people. If stuff wasn't breaking down every day there would be less of us," Taeyong answered. 

"There's barely three, Yuta ditched us for Sicheng already," Ten mumbled. 

"I feel like that's how most of camp will be. But you can't blame him; they haven't even spoke in three years." 

Ten hummed and the couple got back to putting the bed together. This wasn't like past years, where they were rushing to talk and kiss and hold each other. Now they had been together 24/7 for years, and comfortable silence was all they needed. 

"After traveling all these years, it's nice, you know," Taeyong spoke softly. 

"What's nice?" Ten looked at Taeyong fondly, and Taeyong gave him a gentle smile back. 

"To be home." 

~~~~~~~~~~

Sicheng had never been more exhausted in his life. How did five six and seven year olds hold so much energy in those tiny bodies? 

He had been running around and playing with them all day, and somehow, they wanted more. Sicheng had even laid down in the grass, and immediately they all started climbing on top of him. 

"Who wants to play tag?" A voice suddenly shouted. The kids all screamed and got off of him immediately, and Sicheng sat up. There was Yuta, with that big grin on his face, here to save him, as always. "I'll be it!" Yuta shouted, and ran. The kids ran away from him, and all Sicheng could do was watch with fond eyes. He had missed Yuta so much it hurt, but he couldn't tell him just yet what had happened. They needed time, they needed to be alone, and Sicheng had to not be so damn tired. 

Seeing Yuta's giggle Sicheng somehow found the strength to stand back up, following the little kids in running away from Yuta. But he felt a tap on his back. 

"You're mine," Yuta whispered in his ear. "I mean, it." Sicheng held onto Yuta's arm for a brief moment, giving him a bright smile before running after the little boys at top speed. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was after dinner, after the campfire, after all of the campers were (hopefully) asleep when Doyoung and Jaehyun were finally done for the day. They sat in the attic office, the little room on top of the dining hall, watching the empty fields and the lights turn off in the cabins. 

"Do you think it was a good day?" Doyoung asked, turning to look at Jaehyun. 

"It was the best." 


	3. Eyebrow Boy

“Honestly, I think we got the best job,” Renjun said, and Kun couldn’t agree more. This was their second round of prepping breakfast, and third day of working in the kitchen, and so far it had been great. Kun liked kids but after seeing how exhausted his friends were, he was glad he wasn't working with them (he was tired enough just serving them meals and cleaning up after them). He didn't know anything about art so the art shack wouldn't work, he couldn't swim either so being a lifeguard was out of the question, he wasn't exactly the most physical guy so Yukhei's job wouldn't be great, being on maintenance just seemed terrible, and Doyoung and Jaehyun clearly had the most stress out of everyone. So he was perfectly happy where he was. 

Plus, it was nice working with Renjun. They were from the same state so they got along easily; plus they had always been close friends when they had been campers. Renjun wasn't dating someone at camp either, so his boyfriend wasn't constantly barging in and distracting him from his work, and Kun wouldn't have to hear them incessantly be lovey dovey.

"Agreed," Kun answered, chopping up the waffles into waffle sticks as Renjun poured the maple syrup into cups. Kun looked over to see he'd finished, sticking the giant container of syrup back into the fridge. When he was done he gave Kun a sheepish look, and Kun had to hold back an eye roll. He knew exactly what was coming. 

"I finished pouring the syrup," he said, putting on that sickly sweet voice that did not suit him whatsoever. 

"Mmh-hmm." 

"So... can I go call my girlfriend? We're almost done and I'll come back as soon as it's time to serve." 

Kun sighed. "Go ahead." 

"Thank you thank you thank you!" Renjun answered, smiling and dashing to the little area behind the kitchen. Kun watched him go and then quickly returned to cutting up the waffles. 

It wasn't that Kun minded him leaving so much. Unlike some of the other campers he was a good employee and never ditched Kun unless his work was all finished. But, he couldn't help but be a little bit jealous. It had been a long time since he'd had any feelings for Sicheng, and he knew those wouldn't come back any time soon. But it absolutely sucked to be single here at this camp where everyone seemed to be dating someone, someone they had known and loved for years on end Even Renjun had someone, and even though she didn't work at Camp Purple they were just a short drive away from each other. Luckily Renjun didn't blab on and on about her but Kun always overheard their romantic phone calls and promises to visit each other since they were so close by. Kun didn't have anyone close by. In fact, he didn't have anyone at all. 

"Hey Kun!" Jaehyun said excitedly. Kun looked up to see Jaehyun and Doyoung walking down from their attic office into the kitchen. 

"Where's Renjun?" Doyoung asked. 

"Calling his girlfriend." 

"Well tell him to get back here; this is actually pretty important," Doyoung spoke firmly. 

"Renjun!" Kun screamed. 

"What?" Renjun screamed back. 

"Get back here!"

"Why...." Renjun whined. "Fine!" he said, stomping back into the kitchen, about to chew Kun out when he saw Doyoung and Jaehyun standing there. "Oh hey," he spoke with a chuckle, cooling himself down. 

"Now that you both are here, we want to introduce you to someone," Jaehyun said, and there was a knock on the door of the kitchen. Doyoung ran to go let him in, and a gruff looking older man walked in. 

"Hey kids," he spoke. 

"This is Dehun," Doyoung explained. "He provides the raw goods for us to cook with. He'll be stopping by every few days to bring stuff over, in the mornings before breakfast, right?" He turned to Dehun. 

"That's right. I'll be here in the mornings sometimes. Doyoung and Jaehyun gave me the key so I'll just let myself in, so don't be scared if you see me here. Ah, yeah, I forgot to mention. My son will be helping me out so don't be surprised if you see him in here too. Are you kids in college?" They all nodded. "Yeah he's right around your age. Home for the summer, helping out his old man. He should be around here somewhere... Xiaojun!" he shouted. 

"Yeah dad?" the guy apparently named Xiaojun shouted back. 

"Come on in and introduce yourself, we're back here!" 

The sound of footsteps came closer and closer until a short boy, the same age as the counselors, threw open the doors. He set down a box of tomatoes with a huff and stuck his hands in his pockets, looking around. 

"I'm Xiaojun, I'll be helping out here too." 

Kun zeroed in on his face. All he could focus on were those eyebrows. They were the thickest, most angled, most striking eyebrows Kun thought he had ever seen in his life. He just squinted and stared at them until Renjun smacked his arm. Kun shook his head and straightened up. 

"Oh, yeah, nice to meet you," he answered hurriedly. 

"And you?" Xiaojun asked with a sly smile. 

"What?" 

"You. What's your name?" Xiaojun asked, staring pointedly at Kun. 

Clearly Xiaojun was only asking Kun but Doyoung started anyways. "Well I'm Doyoung, and this is Jaehyun. We're the camp directors this summer." 

"And I'm Renjun, I'm one of the cooks. And this is the other cook," Renjun gestured to his coworker. "Kun." 

"Nice to meet you boys," Dehun answered. Xiaojun just raised his eyebrows at Kun and he blinked repeatedly, as if blinded by them. 

"Well, we've got some camp director stuff to do. We'll leave you all to it," Doyoung said. 

"Bye guys, thanks so much!" Jaehyun added. The couple waved and walked back up to their office. 

Once they were gone, Dehun spoke again. "We've got some stuff to deliver, do you mind if we bring it now? We can work around you." 

Renjun turned to Kun; usually he was the diplomatic speaker among the two of them. But clearly Kun was a bit frozen, so Renjun held back a chuckle. "That's no problem for us. We're almost done anyways." 

"Good," Dehun answered. "Come on son, let's go back to the truck." 

"Alright," Xiaojun said quietly and the started to walk out. But once he was almost out of the door, he looked back and as unsubtely as possible, let his eyes rake up and down Kun. And as quickly as that began it was over, and he left. 

"Kun, eyebrow boy was just checking you out!" Renjun whispered.

Kun chuckled to himself. "No way..." 

"Yes way! And you clearly think he's cute by the way you were staring. God, you were practically drooling." 

"I was not! I was just...astounded by those eyebrows." 

Just then the sound of footsteps got closer so Kun and Renjun fell silent, and moments later, Dehun and Xiaojun walked back in carrying heavy boxes. They began to stack them, heaving to themselves, and immediately headed back to the truck. But not before Xiaojun spun around, giving Kun another up and down look before following his dad. 

"KUN!" Renjun whisper yelled. "He did it again, he clearly likes you." 

Kun sighed dramatically. 

"Get his number." 

"No," Kun responded immediately. 

"Come on..." 

"No." 

"What's your problem? Aren't you the one who is so pathetically single?" 

"I am not pathetic!" Kun cried. 

"At least talk to him..." 

"No." 

"Oh my god, Kun, you're ridiculous. Eyebrow boy clearly wants to talk to you." 

Kun paused for a moment before huffing. "Okay, fine! But you're so annoying." 

Just then Dehun and Xiaojun came back, panting before putting down more heavy looking boxes. They paused for a moment to catch their breaths before standing up straight. 

"That's the last of it," Dehun spoke. "I'll go start up the truck while you organize this a little." 

"Alright dad," Xiaojun answered, getting to work right away. 

"See you in a few days, kids," Dehun said. 

"See ya," Renjun answered and Dehun left. 

As soon as Xiaojun's dad was gone Renjun would not stop giving Kun a look, poking his side whenever he was sure Xiaojun wouldn't notice. 

Kun dug his nails into Renjun's arm for a moment before turning to Xiaojun. "U-um... i-it was really nice meeting you!" Kun almost smacked himself; his voice was so high pitched he almost sounded like a girl. 

Xiaojun turned around and grinned; clearly he was done. "Nice meeting you both too," he said before turning to look Kun right in the eyes. "I'll see you around." He raised his eyebrows one last time, Kun practically jumping back, before heading out of the kitchen. 

Kun stared at the door in silence for a few moments while Renjun laughed his ass of beside him. 

"Those eyebrows..." Kun mumbled to himself and Renjun only cracked up harder. Once he regained his composure, he turned to Kun. 

"Kun?" 

Kun shook his head. "O-oh, yeah?" 

"He fucking likes you." 


	4. What Happened to Sicheng

It was after breakfast when Sicheng was about to pick up his kids for the day when he felt a tap on his shoulder. He turned around to see a grinning Yukhei, with one of Sicheng's campers hanging off of his arm. 

"Do you want me to take your campers for the day? I'm free today and I don't mind, plus the kids asked me to hang out with them..." 

Sicheng smiled. His campers liked him but they loved Yukhei; he came and helped Sicheng out whenever he could (since managing a large group of five to seven year olds was often not a one man job) so he was sure his campers wanted to spend some extra time with him. Plus Sicheng was exhausted and he needed a break, and even more he needed a break with Yuta. 

"Are you sure? Really?" Sicheng asked cheerfully. 

Yukhei giggled. "Of course!" 

"Thank you," Sicheng said softly before running over to where Yuta was eating breakfast, holding onto his shoulders. 

"Are you busy today?" He asked excitedly. 

Yuta looked up at him with a grin. "I can not be." He stuffed the last of his breakfast into his mouth and put his tray away, following Sicheng out of the dining hall. 

"Wait!" Taeyong cried. 

"Where are you going?" Ten yelled. Yuta just gave the couple a guilty smile before rushing out with Sicheng. 

The two of them slowed down once they were outside; everyone was indoors eating so the camp was empty and peaceful. They walked over the grass and the gravel, just taking in the cool air of the morning. 

"Where are we going?" Yuta asked. 

"I was thinking the ledge." 

"That sounds good." 

Sicheng looked down, noticing Yuta about to reach for his hand but pulling it back. Sicheng knew Yuta had a million and one questions on his mind, like where had Sicheng been? Why didn't he respond to messages? Were they still dating? They had never broken up officially but they hadn't spoken in three years... They had both been so busy these past couple of days, and so exhausted that they fell asleep almost as soon as they were done for the day. But now, they had time, and Sicheng could finally give Yuta the explanation he deserved. 

They finally reached the ledge and climbed up the rocks, smiling when they saw the breathtaking yet familiar view. 

"It's even prettier than I remembered," Sicheng spoke before sitting down next to Yuta. 

They were silent for a moment, not quite sure what to say, how to start this whole thing off. Hesitantly, Yuta wrapped his arm around Sicheng's shoulder, and Sicheng breathed a sigh of relief. He definitely missed being close to Yuta like this, and he quickly rested his head on Yuta's shoulder. 

"Is this okay?" Yuta asked. 

Sicheng smiled up at him and nodded. "Of course." 

Again, they were silent for another few moments before Yuta finally burst. 

"Sicheng, what happened? You were missing for three years...I didn't know what happened. I was so worried..." 

Sicheng breathed in and out, a deep sigh. "First things first, I want you to know that what happened was not your fault. And it wasn't mine either." 

Yuta first breathed a sigh of relief and then looked worried. "What do you mean by that?" 

Sicheng sighed again. "Well, you know how my parents never exactly...liked you?" Yuta nodded and winced. "It kinda just got worse and worse every school year. At first they just didn't like you, but then they decided they didn't like this camp either, and then they decided they didn't like...they didn't like me having a life at all. They kept saying I was getting bad influences but...but I think they just didn't like thinking I had a mind of my own and things I wanted to do outside of them. To be honest, they didn't let me out most of the time during the school year; I didn't have any friends outside of my parents before coming here. The only reason they sent me here in the first place, and then kept sending me, was because one of the other moms in my mother's homeschool parents group threatened to call child protective services on them." 

"Holy shit," Yuta said, looking at Sicheng in shock. "How come you never told me?" 

"I didn't know about the CPS thing until recently, and as for everything else...I didn't think it was weird. I thought that's how everyone else lived and that this kind of thing was normal." 

"Oh wow," Yuta mumbled. "Go on." 

"I started to get the idea that it wasn't really normal to be so isolated until after the first summer at camp, and my doubt just grew. But as my doubt grew their fear grew, and they slowly started taking stuff away from me that let me contact the outside world. After our third summer, after we..." They shared a shy, tense look. "You know, in the car on the way home they told me it was my last year of camp and that I couldn't do childish stuff during the summer any more. They knew somehow, that we...I don't know how they knew but they did. Now I know that's bullshit, that they wanted to keep me isolated and they didn't want me doing things they thought were immoral, but I was so hurt at the time. I was going to tell everyone but they took away my phone and password locked the computer." Yuta's jaw dropped at that. "They had always monitored me but it got way, way worse. One of them was watching me at all times; I couldn't even close the bathroom door. I planned to send you a letter but I couldn't even do that." Sicheng sighed. "I just wish they had talked to me. They didn't like that I had a boyfriend but weren't this angry about it. If they thought what me and you did was so immoral I just wish they had talked to me about it instead of pretending it never happened while at the same time keeping me locked away. I couldn't even leave our house." 

Yuta held Sicheng tighter to him but didn't look down at him; he didn't want Sicheng to see him tearing up. "How did you ever get out of that?" 

"Well after high school they refused to let me go to college, of course. They run a store so they made me help out at that, only when one of them was there. They didn't even pay me; they said feeding me and letting me live rent free was my pay...anyways, while I was working I had to go to the back room and I found my phone. I knew I could only look for a few moments but I saw the message Doyoung and Jaehyun sent me about coming to work here. I didn't want to raise their suspicions so I didn't message anyone, but I knew I had to get out of there. I started stealing money from the store, really only less than half of what they owed me for working there, just enough to get by for a little while. A few days before camp started I slipped the customer I was ringing up a note about my situation. I asked my father to get something out of the back for them and while he was gone, the customer and I went into his car and drove away. He took me as close as he could and I hitchhiked the rest of the way here." 

Yuta's jaw had dropped ages ago and now he turned to Sicheng and held him tight, squeezing him into his chest. 

"O-Oh my god, I thought you hated me or that you were dead or something, thank god you're okay..." 

Sicheng could hear Yuta choking on tears and he felt his own tears rise, burying himself in Yuta. Just in his arms, he felt his entire being calm down. He couldn't even fathom how much he had missed Yuta during those long years in isolation. 

"Yuta...during that time, it was so hard... but I got through it because of you. Thinking of you, being back here with you...it gave me the courage to do it, and the hope to get through it all." 

Yuta was completely silent at that, blown away. What could he say? 

"I...I missed you..." he answered. "You're the strongest person I know." 

Sicheng pulled away to look Yuta in the eyes, both wet with tears. "Now, nothing will stand in our way. Nothing can stop us from being together." 

Despite his tears, Yuta slowly smiled. "So we're..." 

"We're still together? Of course," Sicheng answered. 

At that Yuta's small smile turned into a beaming grin. "Sicheng I love you," he spoke quickly, as if the words had been on his lips these whole four days, just fighting to get out. 

"I love you too." 

"Now...can I please kiss you?" 

Sicheng grinned from ear to ear. "Of course." 


	5. Continuously Obnoxious Twelve Year Olds

"Hey guys!" Johnny spoke cheerfully that morning. He and his campers were sitting around in a circle in the meadow by the ten to twelves cabins, post breakfast. Johnny never picked up his campers right from breakfast; they always showed up in their pajamas and Johnny had to wait for them all to change. "Are you ready for today's activity?" 

"Yeah!" They all cheered. The kids could be bastards sometimes but they were much more enthusiastic about daily activities now that they'd decided Johnny was cool (throwing a curse word or two into his casual speech with the campers had almost immediately done the trick). 

"Today we are...drum roll please..." The campers started slapping the floor with a little too much enthusiasm. "Hanging out at the store!" 

They all immediately sat up with annoyed expressions. 

"Wait, what?" One of the twelve year olds cried.

"That's so lame!" Another eleven year old whined. 

"The store is boring," a ten year old said and pouted. 

"Um...I'll buy you all ice cream," Johnny bribed. 

All of them looked enthusiastic once again, whispering to each other about ice cream. "Yay!" They cheered, standing up. 

"Can we go right now?" A ten year old asked. 

Johnny laughed. "Of course. Follow me!"

The ten to twelve year olds trailed behind him, laughing and excitedly cheering about the ice cream, but one of the twelve year olds and one of the ten year olds ran to catch up with Johnny, walking on either side of him. 

"Doesn't your boyfriend work at the store?" A ten year old asked in a teasing tone.

"Um.." 

"Yeah, are you just taking us to the store to hang out with your boyfriend?" A twelve year old added. 

"Uh...look guys we're here!" Johnny cried as soon as the store was in sight. That distracted them immediately and they screamed, running inside. Johnny just laughed to himself and followed them in. As much as Johnny didn't want to admit it to them, the campers were right. Johnny had organized this entire day around trying to hangout with his boyfriend while still keeping sight of his campers. 

As soon as he saw Taeil he grinned brightly, walking over to the cash register while the kids basically terrorized the store. Taeil looked shell shocked. 

"Hey," Johnny said with a sweet smile. 

Taeil was speechless for a moment. "O-oh, hey." 

Johnny laughed. "Enjoying my campers?" 

"I...I don't know how you deal with this every day." 

"Let's just say I'm not going to teach middle school once I get my teaching license," Johnny answered. 

"I got the last creamsicle bitches!" One of the twelve year olds screamed, and Taeil made a face. Another one started pretending to hump the bear statue in the corner of the store. 

"If we decide to have kids, let's have a girl," Taeil mumbled so the campers wouldn't hear. 

"Agreed," Johnny whispered back. "Does everyone have their ice cream?" 

"Yeah!" They yelled one after the other. 

"Come bring them up to me so we can stop bothering Taeil," Johnny said.

"Oh Taeil, oh you're so sexy, oh, oh," One of the twelve year olds spoke, trying to do an imitation of Johnny (and failing). 

Taeil and Johnny gave the camper a look before giving each other a look. "Stop, or I take away your ice cream priveleges," Johnny spoke to the camper in his firmest dad voice. That shut him up immediately, and the rest of the kids obediently brought up their ice creams. Taeil rung them up and they waited behind Johnny, on the tips of their toes. Johnny paid and once it was all done, the kids hurriedly grabbed their ice creams with their grubby hands. 

"Thank you Johnny, thank you Taeil," they all said disjointedly before running out of the store, Johnny following behind them. 

"Eat them before they melt!" Johnny yelled. The campers groaned and sat at the picnic tables outside of the store, talking animatedly about...Johnny didn't really want to know what. Johnny himself stepped outside too but leaned over the window, more like a square shaped opening in the wooden wall of the cabin right next to the cash register, to talk to Taeil. 

"How did you like my campers?" 

"They're...special," Taeil answered, and they both laughed. 

"I promise they're not that bad," Johnny said. "The morning is always the worst. Once it gets later in the day and they're a little more tired they are far more tame. Sometimes, they can even be sweet." 

"I don't believe it." 

"I wouldn't believe it either if I hadn't seen it for myself. It's really like I have eight twelve year old Donghyucks to manage." 

Taeil laughed at that and leaned himself out of the window, both taking a quick peek at the campers before turning back to each other. "So what's your activity for today?" 

"This," Johnny bluntly answered, and Taeil laughed. 

"Really?" 

Johnny nodded. "I missed you." 

Taeil smiled softly at that. "Then that's a great idea. Even if it's not exactly an enriching activity for the campers..." 

"They've had four days of enriching activities and I've had no days of seeing you." 

"True, very true." 

They again turned to check the on the campers; most of them had finished their ice creams. "All of the sticks and wrappers better be in the garbage can!" He yelled, and a few of the boys hurriedly picked their trash off the ground and ran them to the garbage. They watched a few seconds longer, as one kid pulled out a deck of cards and the rest pulled pennies out of the many pockets on their cargo shorts.

"Johnny, wanna play poker with us?" One of the eleven year olds asked. 

"Not today, no thanks," Johnny answered, turning back to his boyfriend to see him making a shocked expression. 

"You play poker with the campers? You're encouraging gambling?" 

"Darling, I had to make them like me somehow. You should see poor Mark and his campers; he still has yet to win them over. I did what I had to." 

Taeil slowly shook his head. "Encouraging ten year olds to play poker. Really, you're the worst counselor," he said jokingly. 

"Perhaps," Johnny answered. 

"Johnny?" One of the ten year olds asked, looking up at his giant frame. 

"What's up?" 

"Well there's a ping pong table over there but there's none of the stuff, do you have it?" 

"Oh yeah of course," Taeil answered, pulling out the paddles and balls and handing them to the kid. 

"Thank you!" They all cheered before starting a game. Taeil and Johnny just watched them for a few moments, playing cards and table tennis. Despite everything they were still so innocent, and really, it was sweet. 

"Do you remember when you were that age?" Taeil asked. 

Johnny nodded. "I was really into yu-gi-oh." 

"I liked pokemon more, actually." 

"Did you have a lot of friends?" Johnny asked. 

Taeil shook his head. "You know I was always pretty unpopular until college. And camp of course. You? I mean, you were super popular in high school..." 

"I had my big growth spurt the summer before high school. So no, I was a loser too back then." 

Taeil laughed and they turned towards each other. "God, those first few summers I thought you were so cool, way too cool for me. You were really intimidating." 

"Me?" Johnny said and burst out laughing. "I dunno. I guess I was popular? But I never thought of myself that way I was just...the chill guy that kinda knew everyone, you know? Honestly, I thought you were way too smart for me." 

"And now?" 

"And now? I think we're just right for each other." Johnny reached to hold each other's hands and Taeil squeezed his back, their fingers interlocking, Taeil's tiny contrasting with Johnny's massive one. 

All of the sudden, a loud obnoxious voice piped up. "Taeil and Johnny sitting in a tree, f-u-c-k-" 

Johnny let go of Taeil's hand and turned around, just looking at the twelve year old camper with that stern dad expression he was so great at. Immediately the camper ran off to go rejoin the poker game. 

Johnny released a deep sigh and turned around. "Anyways..." Taeil held back a laugh. "Anyways..." 

"Anyways...back then I was always worried you would find out what a loser I was during the school year and leave me." 

"God I hope you're not worried about that anymore..." 

"Of course not. I have other far more important worries now." 

"Like what?" 

"Like...like Jeffery and Fluff-Fluff." Taeil answered with a sigh. "Are they okay? Are they eating enough? Are they getting played with enough?" 

Johnny sighed and reached back for Taeil's hand again, giving it a squeeze. Their fur babies meant so much to them; of course Taeil was worried, and he had to admit sometimes he got a bit nervous too. "I'm sure they're okay. Our friend has taken care of cats before, and Jeffery and Fluff-Fluff aren't crazy or hard to take care of." 

Taeil grinned at Johnny. "I know. And of course, it's way worth it to be here." 

"Of course." 


	6. Cabin Breakdown

"Sicheng Sicheng!" The five to sevens yelled as soon as Sicheng walked into the dining hall. The weren't wearing their usual excited smiles; instead they wore worried frowns and furrowed brows. Oh no. 

Sicheng walked over to them. "How's it going today? What's wrong?" 

"Last night our cabin broke!" One of the youngest said loudly. 

"What do you mean?" 

"The shelf fell down! A-and the roof did too!"

"Which cabin, A1 or A2?" 

"Both!" The kids yelled simoultaneously. 

"Both?" 

"Yeah!" 

"In my cabin the bar holding the mattress fell down!" 

"Oh my...Did any of you get an owie?" Sicheng asked, and to his relief all the campers shook their heads."Well, we'll get that taken care of right away. Let me go talk to director Doyoung and director Jaehyun." Hiding his frightened expression from the kids, he ran over to the camp directors. "My campers say their cabins completely fell apart last night." 

Doyoung and Jaehyun shared a grimace. "Were any of them hurt?" 

"No, thank god. But they're a bit freaked out." 

"Fuck," Doyoung mouthed so none of the campers heard. "This camp is a liability in itself. It's a wonder they've never been sued."

"Right?" Jaehyun added. "Which cabin was it?" 

"Both." 

"Holy shit," Jaehyun mouthed, and he and Doyoung shared a look. "We'll need to fix that right away. We'll send maintenance to do that. We can take your campers up to the office and let them watch a movie, something chill to distract them. Could you help out maintenance?" 

"Of course," Sicheng answered, his worry for his campers momentarily clouded by the fact that he could hang out with Yuta today. 

"Alright, go eat. Don't worry about it," Jaehyun said, patting Sicheng's shoulder. Sicheng smiled and went back over to his campers, excitement growing for the coming day. 

~~~~~~~~~~

After breakfast, Doyoung and Jaehyun had taken the kids away, leaving Taeyong, Ten, Yuta, and Sicheng to figure out what to do about the camp. They had divided up the cabins, Yuta and Sicheng fixing A1 and Taeyong and Ten fixing A2, and they headed over right away. If the cabins weren't fixed before bed time, things would be a disaster. 

By the time Sicheng and Yuta got to A1 the sun was already high in the sky, heating up the cabin until it was sweltering, especially with the broken roof that let the sun directly in. The boys started with the roof, Yuta at the top of the ladder and Sicheng at the bottom, passing up the tools. 

"You've gotten pretty good at this, did you know about fixing stuff before?" Sicheng asked. 

Yuta laughed. "Hell no! But this camp is so old and decrepit that I've gotten pretty good at fixing stuff over the last six days." Sicheng watched him slide the tarp roof back into place and climb down the ladder. 

"That was fast," Sicheng commented. 

"That wasn't the first time I've had to fix one of these roofs," he explained. "God, it's hot in here." He was right, both he and Sicheng were sweating up a storm. Without hesitation he threw his shirt into the corner of the room and Sicheng's throat went dry. "Ah, much better." Yuta started to make his way over to the shelf before noticing Sicheng's frozen stance and pink cheeks, giving him a smirk. 

"U-um, anyways...." Yuta laughed at Sicheng's awkwardness, but he understood, since it had been three years since they had done...anything. "Wow, look at what a mess these kids have made." 

Yuta let Sicheng change the subject and looked around the horrifically messy cabin, even without the broken shelf. "Who thought it was a good idea to let five to seven year olds sleep in cabins by themselves?" 

Sicheng let out a sigh and started picking up the kid's belongings that fell off the shelf while Yuta started putting it back together. "Camp Purple: the world's most wonderful disaster." 

"Agreed," Yuta answered, starting to screw some of the nails back in. Sicheng turned and blushed again, he had somehow forgotten just how sexy Yuta was. 

He needed to change the subject again. "So...what have you been up to for the past three years?"

Yuta shrugged. "Not much, really. I finished high school and now I'm in college. I'm pretty much just a normal college student, nothing crazy like what was going on with you." Sicheng chuckled a little at that. "But...but honestly, this might sound pathetic but...I spent most of my time just waiting for you to come back." 

Sicheng felt his heart pound at that; the thought of Yuta had been his rock those years when he was trapped and it was wild to think Yuta had yearned for him just as much. "That's not pathetic Yuta." 

Yuta smiled as he hammered some wood back together. "I'm really glad to hear it." 

"Do you live on campus?" 

Yuta shook his head. "I did the first year, but after that I got a cheap apartment. I got so lucky; it's cheap enough that I don't even have roommates. I'm subletting it this summer." 

"Oh cool," Sicheng responded, and Yuta gave him a look that he couldn't quite read. 

"I-I...do you have any plans after this summer?" Sicheng shook his head and looked back at him. "Well, after the summer...do you wanna move in with me? I can totally pay for both of us for the first few months since it's so cheap and I'd really like to have you with me..." 

"YES!" Sicheng yelled. Yuta turned back to him, ignoring the shelf to pull him into a tight hug. Sicheng sighed softly into it, holding him back. He couldn't wait. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Meanwhile in cabin A2, Taeyong and Ten were fixing that broken bed in the cabin. It was hot in their cabin too, sweaty and shirtless, but this is how they were every day. After having all the time in the world together they had made it past their uncontrollable teenage horniness, but even afterwards, they still worked as a couple.

"Let's hope Yuta's actually doing his job," Ten mumbled, and Taeyong laughed. Yuta ditched them for Sicheng very often. 

"Maybe since Sicheng is there he'll actually work..." Taeyong answered, the pair nailing the side bar that held the mattress (and child) to the top bunk in place. 

"True. Plus, you know, they deserve it...after everything." Sicheng had explained what happened to the rest of the counselors a few nights before. 

"Yeah. They haven't had three years of nonstop being together like we have." 

"Plus they're so cute together!" Ten cooed. Taeyong gave him a quick kiss on the cheek as he slid behind him to work on the other side of the bed. 

"Speaking of adorable... our kids!" Taeyong cried. 

"Oh I know! Chenle and Jisung have gotten so big and grown up!" Ten cooed even louder. 

Taeyong sighed. "We get like this every time we bring them up...what do you think is gonna happen if we actually have kids?" 

Ten sighed back. "Disaster. They'll get away with anything and everything." 

Taeyong laughed. "Agreed. But anyways, that's not why I mentioned them." 

"Why did you then?" 

"Well, I think we know them better than anyone else, other than their families and each other..." 

"Very true." 

Taeyong paused and turned to Ten. "They definitely have feelings for each other, right?" 

"Yes!" Ten cried. "I've thought so for years!" 

"Me too! But they're not together yet...how long do you think they've liked each other for?" 

Ten thought for a moment. "Do you remember when we all played truth or dare during our second year at camp? And Chenle kissed Jisung on the cheek? That was the first time I thought something was up." 

"Then...if that was the moment then that means they've liked each other for years...are they together, maybe? Secretly? Or just not obviously?" 

"No way. We would know." 

Taeyong nodded. "True." 

Ten hummed and thought for a moment. "We'll have to double check and make sure we're right first...but I think it's our duty as their parents to set them up. Give them a little push in the right direction." 

Taeyong nodded and grinned. "Absolutely. Clearly they need some sort of push..." 

"They've always been on the shy side." 

"Chenle? Shy?" Taeyong cried. 

"No, I mean, about this sort of thing." 

"Ah...very true." 

Ten turned to look at Taeyong and immediately stopped working. "God you look sexy," he said. Apparently all of their teenage horniness hadn't quite gotten out of their systems yet. 

"I could say the same for you." 

Ten smirked and gestured to the bottom bunk. 

"No...we couldn't. We couldn't fuck on a six year old's bed..." 

Ten sighed. "True. But I mean... we do have to test its integrity somehow..." 

Taeyong stepped in closer, wrapping his arms around Ten's shoulders, pressing their bare chests closer together. "Let's wait until we get back to our cabin, okay?" 

"We could just make out..." 

Taeyong grinned. "Are you capable of just making out?" 

Ten frowned. "No... fine! You're right! Let's wait until we're back at our cabin!" 

Taeyong pecked Ten's lips. "It won't be long now I promise." 


	7. It's About Time

It was morning time after breakfast and Sicheng had brought his campers (the five to sevens) to the art shack. With the painting of pots, Sicheng clearly couldn't do it all on his own. So Chenle and Jisung were in the throes of helping him out, teaching the little kids how to paint and not get paint all over themselves or cry when they made a mistake. 

Working like this was Chenle's dream. Not the kid part or the art shack part, but the being with Jisung part. They made a great team, keeping the kids under control while still having the times of their lives, talking during the free moments, laughing at the kids antics once they were done for the day. It was perfect, and Chenle never wanted it to end. 

Jisung didn't have to know just how much Chenle enjoyed it. How Chenle felt when Jisung's paint covered fingers brushed against his hand by accident, how his calm voice when talking to the kids sent shivers down his spine, how when he complimented a drawing he did on a bowl for a kid, Chenle had to go hide out and squeal in the bathroom. He couldn't mess up their friendship with his excess feelings. He just couldn't. 

Chenle looked up for a moment to see him, the object of his affections since he started middle school. Jisung looked back at him and grinned, shy with almost everyone but him. Chenle pretended like he didn't notice the way Jisung was quiet until they were alone, chatting up a storm, how the sound of his laugh always carried farther when they were together. Jisung kept on looking at him and Chenle couldn't even hold that contact and looked back down at the seven year old's painting. 

"Mr. Chenle?" The kid asked. 

"Yes honey, do you need more paint?" 

The little boy shook his head. "Why are your cheeks pink?" 

Chenle sighed to himself. He was in far too deep. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was breaktime now for Chenle so he made his way out of the art shack, breathing in the fresh air and thinking about who was free to talk to while he got his half an hour off. But as soon as he was outside he was stopped by two of his friends. 

"Renjun? Kun? What are you doing here?" 

"We need to talk to you," Renjun said firmly. 

"About Jisung," Kun added. 

Chenle knew what they meant and immediately flushed red. "Don't you guys have to make lunch?" 

"Lunch is corndogs today. We've got all the time in the world," Kun answered. 

Chenle immediately filled with regret; the last time they were all campers he had admitted his crush on Jisung to them after they incessantly pestered him. Maybe that had been a bad idea. Definitely that had been a bad idea. If he had known he would get called out on it, he wouldn't have told them. 

"Have you told him?" Renjun asked, dropping his voice to a whisper. Chenle looked panicked back at the art shack. 

"He can't hear you! He's got screaming five year olds in there," Kun whispered. 

"Fine," Chenle groaned. 

"So, answer the question." 

Chenle pouted. "No I haven't..." 

Kun and Renjun made a dramatic show of sighing and rolling their eyes. "Come on!" Kun whined. 

"Why not?" Renjun added. 

"Because...because he doesn't like me back." 

"What the hell makes you think that?" Renjun said. 

"I dunno, everything?" 

"He totally likes you..." Kun mumbled. 

"What happens if he doesn't like me back and I tell him and then I ruin everything?" 

"What happens if you never tell him and then you settle on the fact that you're not going to be with him and then you meet someone else who you like but not as much as you like Jisung and you decide to marry him but then fifty years later Jisung confesses he liked you back all along and now you're married to this fucking weirdo who isn't Jisung and you die thinking about what could have been?" Renjun answered. 

"I understand where you're coming from Chenle. But it's not an issue because he totally likes you back. He's just shy," Kun answered. 

"How do you know?" 

"I'm technically an adult; I can read these things." 

"But...you're literally the only single counselor..." Chenle said. 

"Not for long, you should have seen him the other day with this guy from the food company with the eyebrows..." Renjun piped up.

"Wait, what?" Chenle asked with a smile. 

Kun quickly shushed both of them. "This meeting is not about me. It's about Chenle." 

"True," Renjun said, regaining his firm stance. "Now Chenle, how long have you liked him for." 

Chenle paused shamefully. "Six years." 

"Six years?" Kun and Renjun gasped. 

"Come on. It's time," Renjun said. 

"I think it's the year..." Kun said hopefully. 

Chenle just shook his head slowly and looked down at his watch. "Look, my break is up now. I have to good." He put on a cheeky grin. "Good luck with eyebrow boy." 

Kun glared at him and Chenle went back into the Jisung, immediately remembering the conversation he'd just had. He couldn't look Jisung in the eye, just rushing around to try and help the kids. 

Jisung looked him over. Jisung thought he knew Chenle pretty well, and he looked positively frazzled. "Are you okay?" He mumbled once all the kids where distracted. 

"U-um yeah! Of course! Uh...how about you go on your break?" Chenle answered nervously, still looking everywhere but at Jisung. 

"...okay." Jisung gave him once last side glance before heading outside, thinking about where he would sit to get a few moments of peace and quiet. 

But suddenly, he was stopped by two people he actually did want to see: Ten and Taeyong. 

"Hey sweetie! How's it going?" Ten asked. 

"Are you liking working at camp?" Taeyong added. 

Jisung knew his camp parents well and although it all seemed sweet, there was something sinister in their voices, and Jisung knew something was up. 

He made a face at them. "Guys, what's going on?" 

"We just wanted to talk to you," Taeyong said. 

"About you and Chenle's...friendship," Ten finished. 

Jisung froze completely still. His friendship with Chenle was something he cherished more than anything in the world. He hated himself for it, but, it was also something he wished was so, so different. He had liked Chenle since he was eleven years old, since he had chosen him out of everyone in the whole camp to give a cheek kiss to. It was his first time feeling butterflies like that, and ever since then, all of his affection had gone to the too loud boy one year his senior. 

But it was a secret, and his deepest secret too. Jisung had never told anyone in the whole world, not even Ten or Taeyong or people who didn't come to this camp. And it was because he was a hundred percent sure that Chenle did not feel the same way. To Chenle, he thought, what they had was always completely and totally friendship, nothing more. If Chenle ever found out, it could totally ruin their friendship.

"Wh-what are you talking about?" Jisung answered, fidgeting nervously. He knew he was a terrible liar but he could at least try. 

"Come on Jisung, are you gonna make me say it?" Ten spoke. 

Jisung took a few deep breaths. "Fine. I...I like him. B-but please don't tell anyone okay? Please, I've never told anyone and if Chenle finds out everything will be ruined..." 

"What do you mean?" Taeyong asked worriedly. 

"Chenle clearly doesn't like me back. If he finds out I like him that might ruin our friendship." 

Ten snorted. "Jisung, that is in no way an issue. He clearly likes you back and has for years." 

Jisung slowly shook his head. "I don't think so..." 

"Why not?" Taeyong said. 

"He...he just doesn't. A-anyways, why are you asking me about this?" 

"Well... he definitely likes you, and you definitely like him. We wanted to encourage you to tell him. Just give you a little push," Taeyong said. 

Jisung respected and loved Ten and Taeyong like family, and he normally trusted them on anything. If they encouraged him to do something, he would do it, because almost always they were right. But this time...he couldn't. He really thought they were wrong. 

"I-I'm sorry to disappoint you guys...but I can't. I know he doesn't feel the same and it's okay. I'm okay with just being friends." 

Ten and Taeyong shared a brief look and Taeyong rubbed his shoulder. "Alright. If that's what you think is best then you should stick with it." 

"It's okay," Jisung said, looking at his phone. "Oh. My break is up, better head back." 

"Alrighty kiddo," Taeyong said, and the three of them shared a hug. 

"Everything will work out for the best, I promise," Ten added. 

Jisung nodded, and walked back in to the art shack. Chenle and Jisung shared a tentative look before staring back down at the ground. Jisung now felt just as frazzled as Chenle had been. 


	8. For Old Time's Sake

Despite the fact that the boys were together all the time, they had all been so busy working that they hadn't really had a moment to just have fun, all of them together. But tonight they had set aside a time for them all to hang out as a big group, like they had back when they were campers. 

There were way too many of them to all fit in one cabin so they had cleared out the dining hall to use. 

"So, what should we do?" Jaehyun asked the group. 

"How about truth or dare?" Donghyuck suggested. "For old time's sake." Everyone very quickly agreed, and the game began. 

"I'll start," Renjun spoke up. "Yukhei, truth or dare?" 

"Let's start with a dare!" 

Renjun thought for a moment. "Show us the craziest scar you have." 

Yukhei thought for a moment. "Well, it's only kind of a scar..." He pulled down the shoulder of his shirt to reveal a little tattoo inked onto the top of his arm. Everyone leaned in close to take a look. 

"Brah?" Sicheng mumbled. 

"Why do you have a tattoo that says 'brah'?" Johnny asked. 

"My frat bros dared me to, okay?" Yukhei explained. 

"And you...actually did it?" Kun asked. 

"Of course, it was a dare!" Yukhei pulled his shirt back up. "Taeyong, truth or dare?" 

"Um, truth." 

"You and Ten travelled around a lot, right? So what was the craziest thing you did while you travelled?" 

"Uh..." Taeyong and Ten looked at each other, sharing a silent conversation. They both smiled and Taeyong turned back to Yukhei. "So, when Ten and I were in Italy we went to the Vatican, right? And while we were there..." They shared a little giggle. 

"Oh no," Yuta mumbled. 

"Please," Doyoung begged. "Please tell me you guys did not have sex in the vatican..." 

"...we did," Taeyong admitted. Everyone else immediately went crazy, yelling and staring at them in shock. 

"But why would you do that?" Taeil asked. 

"We had to, alright?" Taeyong answered. 

"No! No you did not!" Kun spoke. 

"See, I just want to know where you could even get away with that..." Mark said. 

"In the bathrooms of the modern art section," Taeyong responded. 

Mark nodded slowly and everyone else just sort of looked at the couple awkwardly. 

Taeyong cleared his throat. "Anyways...Jisung, truth or dare?" 

Jisung's face immediately fell. Not only did he hate hearing about his pseudo parent's sex lives, he also knew Taeyong was going to give him something involving Chenle. He decided to opt for the slightly less dangerous option. 

"Truth," he answered, and Taeyong gave him a suspicious smile. 

"Hm...who do you think is the most objectively attractive person here?" He asked. Jisung rolled his eyes; Taeyong knew exactly who he thought was the most objectively attractive person here. 

"Um...Chenle. Jeno, truth or dare?" He asked immediately, wanting the attention off of himself as soon as possible. 

"Dare?" Jeno hesitantly answered. 

"It's been a while since you've seen Jaemin, right? So...go kiss him. Show him how much you missed him," Jisung said. 

Jeno turned to Jaemin and immediately his boyfriend pulled him into a deep, passionate kiss. As soon as they got comfortable with each other Jaemin was always touchy and now was no exception, his hands trailing Jeno's waist. The dare was much needed; Jeno and Jaemin hadn't really gotten a chance to do this yet and it felt good but Jeno knew the promise he made that lurked behind the passion of Jaemin's kiss. So as quickly as he could without seeming weird, he pulled away. Jaemin looked him in the eyes and gave him a knowing smile and Jeno didn't know what to do. 

"Taeil, truth or dare?" Jeno asked. He breathed a sigh of relief when Jaemin rested his head on his shoulder, not noticing anything was wrong. 

"Truth please," he answered. 

"What's the best part about getting to live with your boyfriend?" 

"The sex," Taeil firmly answered, then laughed. "No! Just kidding. It's raising our cat babies together, one hundred percent." 

"I feel the same," Johnny mumbled softly. They sweetly held hands and Ten and Taeyong grimaced. 

"Alright. Donghyuck, truth or dare?" 

"What the hell do you think? Dare of course." 

"Hm..." Taeil grinned. "Alright, since you're a college student and you had an absolutely massive glow up and all...I dare you to give us all a little strip tease." 

"Oh yeah," Donghyuck answered, not even an ounce of embarrassment on his face unlike Mark, who had immediately turned beet red. Slowly, he stripped off his clothes while everyone looked on with varying degrees of surprise. Mark curled up in a little ball, covering his entire face. But everyone could tell he was secretly grinning.

When he was done he winked at his boyfriend, throwing his pants back on but leaving his shirt off, wrapping an arm around Mark's shoulders. 

"Donghyuck, I personally am disgusted by the fact that I'm even slightly attracted to you now," Johnny said. 

"I know," Jeno added. "Why did you have to get hot?" 

"And when the hell did you get a tattoo?" Renjun added. 

"Because," Donghyuck said with a little shrug. 

"I was more embarrassed than you," Mark admitted. 

"Alrighty, who is my first victim..." Donghyuck looked around the dining hall. "Chenle, truth or dare?" 

"Dare!" Chenle said excitedly. 

"Go kiss Jisung." 

Chenle gave him the hardest glare he had ever given anybody in his life. Jisung stared at the floor like his soul had left his body. 

"B-but," Chenle started, beginning to chuckle awkwardly. "But that's my best friend!" Literally everyone but Jisung knew he wasn't really protesting. The smile was still etched onto his face and his words sounded false to their ears. 

"Yeah! It'll be awkward!" Jisung added, and literally everyone but Chenle knew he wasn't protesting either. Taeyong had to put his hand over Ten's mouth to stop him from laughing. 

"Oh my god guys..." Donghyuck started. 

"Fine! Fine! We'll do it!" Chenle spoke, and he and Jisung turned to each other. 

They were frozen. The nervous energy could have been cut with a knife. 

Chenle was bold enough to make the first move and just surged forward, pressing their lips together. Honestly... the moment was even better than he had expected. And he had expected a lot. 

Both of them were far too nervous to let it last and they pulled away almost as quickly as they leaned in, both turning to stare at their laps before they could lock eyes. 

"Come on, that was barely even a real-" Donghyuck started until Taeyong shut him up. 

"A-anyways," Chenle spoke, forcing out a little laugh. "Sicheng, truth or dare?" 

Everyone was so distracted by Chenle and Jisung's kiss that it took Sicheng a minute to answer. "Um...dare." 

"Go show Yuta how much you missed him," Chenle answered cheerfully, punctuating his words with a wink. He was always good at covering up his turbulent feelings. 

"Thank you Chenle," Yuta said with a chuckle as Sicheng fell into his arms, making out with all of the passion and love they possibly could. Renjun made a gagging noise and they pulled away to glare at him. 

"Really, that's Ten and Taeyong level bad," Doyoung scolded. 

"Well they deserve it!" Jaehyun responded. 

Sicheng smiled and gave Chenle an appreciative nod before looking around the circle. He nervously glanced at Yuta; there was something he wanted to ask him but he was afraid. He needed him to be honest, and maybe this would be the best time, because if he was lying others could call him out. 

"Yuta, truth or dare?" Sicheng asked. 

Yuta looked back at him in confusion. "Um...truth?" 

"Yuta...did you like anyone while I was away?" 

"No," he answered immediately. Sicheng searched his face but he couldn't find even a hint of a lie. 

"R-really?" 

Yuta nodded and smiled. "Didn't I tell you I spent all those years just waiting for you to come back?" 

"Aw!" Donghyuck cooed. 

Sicheng smiled to himself and looked down at the ground with pride. Yuta sweetly kissed his cheek. "You have nothing to worry about," he mumbled in his ear. 

"Love you," Sicheng mumbled back. 

"Yes my turn!" Yuta cheered. He looked at Yukhei for a moment before remembering he'd already gone, then shaking his head. But then he looked at Jungwoo and smirked to himself. This round needed a bit more drama; since they didn't want to push Chenle and Jisung any further, maybe it was time he stirred the pot with those two. 

"Jungwoo, truth or dare?" 

"Truth," Jungwoo quietly answered. 

"Do you regret breaking up with Yukhei?" 

Immediately, the whole room fell silent. Yukhei started fidgeting and Jungwoo's breath rate climbed higher. Suddenly, the pair made eye contact for the first time since they came to camp, and they couldn't look away. 

"Please don't lie," Yukhei mouthed to Jungwoo. Jungwoo gave him the tiniest of nods and turned back to Yuta. 

"I...I do." 

The silence seemed to grow thicker. 

"J-Jaehyun, truth or dare?" 

"Um...dare." 

"Go...go measure your penis and s-see how big it is," Jungwoo said, letting the craziest thing he could think of spew out of his mouth, anything to get the attention off of him. 

Everyone started giggling under their breath, Jungwoo's confession almost forgotten (by everyone but a very shell shocked Yukhei and Jisung who was still distracted enough to not have even heard it), and the tips of Jaehyun's ears turned red. 

"There's a ruler in the kitchen," Renjun said gleefully, and Jaehyun headed over to go see. 

Once he was gone Johnny turned to Doyoung. "What's your estimation?" 

Doyoung glared at him. "I'm not answering that." 

"Come on, don't be lame," Donghyuck piped up. 

"Well am I supposed to tell? I've never seen anybody else's..." 

Just then Jaehyun came back and smiled, sitting down next to Doyoung and nodded contemplatively. "Not bad...not bad at all." 

"So, what was it?" Ten asked. 

"Almost exactly seven inches," Jaehyun admitted. 

"Above average; pretty good," Yuta answered. 

Jaehyun waggled his eyebrows at Doyoung who glared back at him before looking around the room. "Kunnie, truth or dare?" 

"After that one, I'm going with truth." 

"What, is yours-" Donghyuck started before earning a particularly hard arm wack from Kun. 

"Alright, you've always been the single one. Have you had any romances these past few years we've all been apart?" 

Kun slammed his fist on the table. "No! No I have not! I am so fucking single." 

"Maybe it's because of your small p-" 

"Johnny, truth or dare?" Kun interrupted Donghyuck. 

"Dare," he firmly answered. 

Renjun whispered something in Kun's ear and he nodded, running off to the kitchen. He returned a few minutes later with a cup containing a mysterious concoction and a sly grin on his face. "Drink this then kiss Taeil." 

"Oh no," Taeil mumbled. 

"What is this?" Johnny asked worriedly. 

"It's a secret," Kun answered. Johnny sighed deeply before throwing it back, gagging, then pulling Taeil in for a deep kiss. 

Taeil quickly pushed him away. "Augh, what is that?" He yelled as Johnny got up and downed two glasses of water. As soon as he was done he gave Renjun and Kun astounded looks. 

"What the fuck was that?" He yelled. 

"The bottle says it's maple syrup," Kun explained. "We were about to serve it to the kids but then we tasted it...we're not entirely sure what it actually is; I guess the ingredient list was on the box full of the containers which has long since been recycled. 

"Thank god you didn't serve that," Doyoung mumbled. 

Johnny drank another glass of water and walked back over to his seat. "Jaemin, truth or dare?" 

"I think I'll go with truth." 

"Have you and Jeno..." Johnny raised his eyebrows. 

Jaemin thought for a moment. "No...not," he paused to clear his throat. "yet." 

"Wooo," Chenle cheered. 

"I think the plan is this summer though...right?" Jaemin asked Jeno. 

"Y-yeah," Jeno stuttered, his stomach sinking. "This summer." 

Everyone started leering and teasing them and Jaemin easily went along with it. Jeno just fell silent, shrinking further into himself. But he saw Jaemin looking to him and he gave his usual bright smile, and Jaemin smiled sweetly back. 

"Marky Mark, truth or dare?"

"I think I'll go with dare." 

"Go bug your campers." 

"Jaemin," Mark whined. "Why? They already hate me..." 

"Come on, it'll be funny!" 

"Fine. But I hate you." Mark pouted and stood up, Donghyuck giving him a sympathetic pat before he pushed his way out of the dining hall. 

The boys were chattering amongst themselves when Mark stomped back in twenty minutes later, throwing a baggie onto the table and slumping angrily back next to Donghyuck. 

"What's that?" Chenle mumbled. 

"You're seventeen and you don't know what weed looks like?" Renjun answered. 

"That's weed?" Chenle asked with a gasp. 

"Yes!" Mark cried. "They were high as fuck in the cabin!" He groaned and put his face in his palms, Donghyuck holding him tight and rubbing his back. "They're gonna hate me even more now." 

"Excuse me for asking, but why would you confiscate their weed?" Ten asked. 

"Thank god he did," Doyoung responded. "Do you know how much trouble the camp would get in if their parents found out we had just let them smoke it? Camp Purple would be over." 

"You saved the camp baby boy," Donghyuck cooed. 

"But at what cost?" Mark wailed. They all gave Mark a few minutes to calm down and he eventually sat up, shaking his head and sighing. 

"Ten, truth or dare?" 

"You know what? I'm gonna say truth." 

"I'm going to give you an easy question because I think some people deserve easy truths and easy dares," Mark started. "So, what is your most prized possession." 

Ten thought for a moment. "Oh!" He spoke, looking down at his hand. "Probably my wedding ring." 

"Your what?" Johnny cried. 

"Are you two..." Jungwoo trailed off. 

"Oh yeah, we got hitched like...six months ago or so," Taeyong answered. 

Everyone's jaws dropped, and the silence lasted for a moment before they started screaming. 

"How could you guys get married and not invite us?" Yuta yelled. Chenle looked like he was on the verge of tears. 

"Guys, guys, guys!" Taeyong yelled back, and they all got quiet. "We totally eloped, alright? To be honest, we don't even remember it happening." 

"Like, we went on a drunken bender one night and a few days later we got an email from city hall with copies of our marriage registration papers. We were really confused for a while but we called and turns out we actually did do it. So we just thought fuck it and bought wedding rings and didn't divorce," Ten explained. 

Doyoung shook his head slowly. "Only Ten and Taeyong..." 

"Anyways...oh Doyoung, you haven't gone. Truth or dare?" 

"Dare," Doyoung spit out before remembering that Ten would be the one giving that dare. "I-I mean truth." 

"No take backs!" Ten spoke cheerfully, and Doyoung visibly deflated. "I dare you to do an impression of Jaehyun's orgasm." 

"This is exactly what I was afraid of," Doyoung answered, then sighed and cleared his throat. "Oh, oh my god, Doyoung, AH!" Doyoung grimaced at the ground and Jaehyun stuck his head between his legs. 

"Was that accurate?" Ten asked Jaehyun. Jaehyun paused for a moment then nodded. Doyoung looked like he was about to burst. 

"I'd just like to say that I hate you Ten." 

"You know you love me; I'm your best friend." 

"I do love you and you are my best friend. Doesn't mean I can't hate you." 

"I'd like to add that I also hate you," Jaehyun mumbled. 

"Okay, let's discuss something else," Doyoung spoke. "Renjun, truth or dare?" 

"I'm not gonna take any risks here; I'll say truth." 

"What are you most excited to see happen at camp?" 

"Oh, definitely Kun's romance with eyebrow boy," Renjun answered. 

"His what?" Taeil said, waggling his eyebrows. 

"Ooo, who's this eyebrow boy," Yuta teased. 

"Guys it's three am! I have to get up in two hours!" Kun cried. 

"Oh shit," Doyoung mumbled. 

"Let's go to bed," Jeno said. 

"Don't think I'm forgetting this thing about eyebrow boy though! I'll pry tomorrow," Ten said. 

"Go to bed," Kun answered. 


	9. As Things Should Be

Jungwoo knew he was in for a long, long day. 

It was a beautiful day and he really, really wanted to take his eight to nine year old campers to the lake to play in the sun and sand all day. He had spent hours packing sandwiches and snacks for them all last night and had told them to make sure their swimsuits were dry so they could play in the lake. He had thought everything was perfect when he told Doyoung and Jaehyun of his plan. They had agreed, except for one thing: Jungwoo had to bring another counselor with him. 

Jungwoo had understood; it was a big area and the lake could get dangerous (he remembered when Jaemin almost drowned his first year of camp). So, he went around asking almost every counselor if they were free to help him out. But none were, except the one person Jungwoo hadn't asked: Wong Yukhei. It was his job to take the kids out on adventures outside of the campgrounds and assist the age group counselors. So of course he was free, and of course he agreed to help Jungwoo out when Doyoung and Jaehyun had asked him. 

It wasn't that Jungwoo didn't want to spend time with Yukhei. Actually, that was all he had wanted to do since camp had started. But he had always had a hard time with the awkward stuff, and he was sure Yukhei didn't exactly want to spend time with him. Just looking at Yukhei's ever handsome face filled him with guilt, and things were just worse after what he admitted last night. 

Jungwoo and Yukhei had been able to avoid each other on the walk, playing with two separate groups of kids, but they were stuck when they got to the lake. They set up a blanket on the sand, laying out the ground rules before they sent the kids off to play. Sitting side by side, Jungwoo's face was burning and he could barely get the words out, forcing Yukhei to do most of the rule explaining and question answering for him. 

The kids dispersed immediately after they let them go, sitting in the sand in uncomfortable silence, curled up with their arms around their knees. The screaming joy of the children was easily drowned out by the ringing in his ears, and it was so awkward that Jungwoo could have screamed. This was the first time they had been so close so they had broken up, after all. 

Jungwoo tried to calm his mind, watching the lapping of the lake against the shore, but he couldn't. He could only think about the happy times he'd had with Yukhei right here at this lake all those years ago. He missed him. He'd missed him since the day he broke up with him. 

"Yukhei, Yukhei!" A group of kids yelled, running over to the counselor. Jungwoo watched him look up and put a smile on his face. 

"Hey kids, what's up?" 

"Do you wanna play with us?" 

Yukhei shook his hands. "Sorry guys. I'm tired today." 

Jungwoo stared at him in surprise; he loved playing with the kids. The kids whined and pouted. "Come on! Please?" 

Yukhei hummed. "Maybe later." 

"Fine," the kids groaned and ran away. 

Once they're gone, Jungwoo finds the courage to turn to Yukhei. "Don't you usually like to play with the kids?" 

Yukhei shrugged and looked at Jungwoo. "I don't know. I...I wanted to stay next to you, I guess." Jungwoo started fidgeting; he didn't really know what to say to that. "Jungwoo?" Yukhei suddenly asked. 

"Yeah?" 

"Last night, why did you say you regret breaking up with me?" 

Jungwoo froze; he had not expected Yukhei to bring it up. But maybe he'd forgolt tten that was Yukhei's nature. He wasn't afraid to ask these things like Jungwoo was. "I...I said it because it's the truth. Y-you told me not to lie and I didn't." 

Yukhei looked so sad and it was weird because Yukhei was almost never said, and Jungwoo could cry just thinking about the fact that he was the one who made Yukhei feel this way. "Then why did you break up with me in the first place?" Yukhei choked out, like he was about to burst into tears, and it was all Jungwoo could do not to cry too. 

Once he calmed down a bit he spoke. "Yukhei...I guess, I guess before college I'd never felt cool at all. B-but then I met my friends, and they made me feel like I was a part of something, not just something I'd have to wait for summer for, an all the time group. They...they really wanted me to break up with you. They don't know anything about you, they think you're totally something you're not. I really can't blame them though. I actually listened to them and did it, and they liked me more for it. But...but I miss you every single day. I've cried every single night since I did it, but I didn't want to tell my friends because they'd not like me or tease me." Yukhei just watched him, listening. Jungwoo sighed. "All I can say is I'm sorry. I should have said sorry ages ago. When I did it, well, I shouldn't have even done it, but I should have said sorry then. You didn't deserve that. You are so much more than a stupid stereotype and I don't know why I'd listen to anything like that when I know how perfect you are." 

"Jungwoo...I...I...Why didn't you ever reach out to me? I missed you so much too, I missed you half to death! It hurts me to think of you crying like that, every night. Why didn't you ever send me a message?" 

Jungwoo hummed and looked down at the sand. "I didn't want to lose my friends, of course. But mostly I was afraid I would just hurt you more by trying to contact you. Plus...I don't deserve you. I don't deserve your time or your love. I didn't deserve you back when we first got together and I sure don't deserve you now. I'm weak. I'm so weak and I couldn't stand my ground, not even to defend the person I love more than anyone else." 

"Jungwoo..." Yukhei said slowly, the pain clear in his voice. "If you could go back, do you think you could do it? Do you think you could stay with me?" 

Jungwoo nodded carefully. "If I could go back I wouldn't even be friends with them. I-I regret breaking up with you and I regret everything that happened our first month of college. I regret myself most of all." 

Yukhei started to smile a little bit and Jungwoo looked at him, confused. "Jungwoo, you hurt me a lot. You really did. But...I'm over it now. It wasn't right but I know you and why you did it. We all have our moments, and I know things have been hard for you. I know how badly you were bullied in high school, how you had nobody, and how much friends mean to you because of that. How much feeling like people like you means to you. So I understand. And I'm over it. Now all I want is to have you back." 

Jungwoo's jaw dropped in surprise. That was all he had been wanting but he could not have imagined it actually happening. But this was why Yukhei was so special; he had always understood Jungwoo in the way that nobody else could. He didn't deserve Yukhei; he wasn't good enough for him. He couldn't accept this with a good conscience. 

"Yukhei, you don't want me back. I'm not good enough." 

"Jungwoo," Yukhei mumbled, tilting Jungwoo's chin up to look at him, trembling and teary eyed. "I want you, flaws and all. That's all I've ever wanted." 

Jungwoo sniffled. "A-are you sure?"

Yukhei nodded. "Of course. Of course I do." And for the first time since camp started, Yukhei smiled. He had smiled these past nine days of course but not his real smile, his big bright Yukhei smile that had the whole world falling for him in mere seconds. The smile that made Jungwoo fall too, the one that never failed to blow him away and surprise him when it was directed at him. 

Jungwoo, slowly, smiled back. "I-if you want me...then I want to be with you again. S-so badly." 

Yukhei giggled and leaned in closer. "Then you're my boyfriend again. Okay?" 

Jungwoo sniffled and nodded. "Okay." 

And in that gentle smile Yukhei's frame doesn't even seem capable of, he pulled Jungwoo in for their first kiss in nine months. It was gentle and sweet and forgiving. Just like Yukhei. 

When they pulled away Yukhei pulled Jungwoo tight into his arms and Jungwoo latched back on, sobbing endlessly into the crook of his shoulder about just how sorry he was, how he would never hurt Yukhei again, how he would do anything for him. And Yukhei just rubbed him back and told him it was okay, as long as they loved each other as they deserved nothing would go wrong again. 

And the kids stayed far, far away from them.


	10. The Stoner in the Woods

In terms of cooking, today was an easy day. All of the food on the menu was easy to prepare and could be done by one person alone. Kun and Renjun had planned a few days like this for the summer, so that they could have time off and help out other counselors, do something other than being locked in the kitchen all day. 

Today's was Renjun's free day but instead of taking the time to call his girlfriend or even just relax, he was going to the sixteen to eighteens cabins to help out Mark. Boy did he need it; he had been begging all of the other counselors since camp had started to help him try to make his campers civil with him. Renjun finally responded to the call; he may be tiny but he does have a talent for whipping people into shape. Today was an especially important day for Mark as well; he had to confront his campers about the weed he'd discovered them using when the counselors all played truth or dare. He had given them all a break yesterday but Doyoung and Jaehyun had insisted he do it today. He would definitely need Renjun's help. 

Renjun, Mark, and Mark's campers all sat around in a circle in the grassy meadow by the ten to twelves cabin, a serious expression on his face. Mark started by pulling a big wad of cash out of his pocket. 

"First, let me just start by saying that I'm not mad at any of you. I get it. I'm not much older than you guys anyways. The reason you can't do that is more because of the camp anyways. There are little kids here and if a parent found out any of you had that stuff, let alone got away with it...Camp Purple would be done for. It's really not about you guys at all." 

The campers all reluctantly nodded. "What's the cash for?" One of them asked with a scoff. 

"I want to know who bought the weed and how much it was. I'm gonna pay you back for it," Mark answered. The campers all looked at each other in surprise and mumbled to each other. 

Finally, the oldest one of them spoke up. "That's really cool of you, dude. So we're gonna be cool back and admit that none of us paid for this." 

"Wait, what?" Mark asked. 

"There's this guy...he hangs out in the woods," one of the campers began to explain. 

"What kind of a guy?" Renjun asked. 

"He's not a weird hobo, he's like the same age as us. He has a mustang and he just hangs out in the woods behind cabin B2 and smokes. He gives it to us sometimes." 

"For free?" Mark cried. 

"Yeah! He's really rich or something. He's got a mustang," another campers spoke up. 

Mark and Renjun looked at each other then back at the campers. Just then, the lunch bell rang. 

"Thanks guys. We'll discuss this more after lunch," Mark spoke, dismissing his campers, and they quickly ran off. 

As soon as they were gone, Mark grew wide eyed. "What the fuck?" 

"Right?" Renjun answered. "Actually, Sicheng told me a weird story that sounds kind of like what the campers were saying. He said that there's a guy in the woods who's been terrorizing his campers." 

"What the fuck..." Mark whispered. 

"We have to take care of this. What would parents say if they found out there's a guy hanging out in the woods by our camp scaring five year olds and handing out drugs?" 

Mark sighed. "Agreed. Let's take care of this ASAP." 

"You go tell Doyoung and Jaehyun and then take care of your campers. I'll go find this guy and give him a piece of my mind." 

Mark nodded. "Got it." And so they set off on their tasks. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

It didn't take Renjun long to find him. He was only about a half a mile away from cabin B2 when he came upon the guy, laying on top of the hood of an obnoxiously clean red mustang and smoking the biggest blunt Renjun had ever seen. 

As soon as this guy noticed Renjun, he blinked and sat up a little. "Are you one of those high school kids from the summer camp?" He held up a baggie full of weed. "Want some?" 

Renjun ignored him. "What the fuck are you doing here?" 

The guy shrugged. "I'm Yangyang Liu." 

"I said, what the fuck are you doing here?" 

This guy, apparently named Yangyang, momentarily looked astounded that his previous answer hadn't worked. "Smoking weed." 

Renjun rolled his eyes. "Why here?" 

"Why here?" Yangyang cried before sighing. "Well, my father is very strict about drugs. If he catches me, he takes a thousand dollars out of my monthly allowance!" 

Renjun had to hold back a growl; this guy really was super rich. And annoying "Just don't do it here! Stop terrorizing our camp! Seriously. You could get us shut down." 

"Come on, it's funny when those little kids scream! And the teenagers are so bored." 

Renjun glared with all his might. "Leave." 

Yangyang rolled his eyes and pulled a wad of cash out of his pocket. It looked as big as Mark's wad but instead of being a roll of ones, it was a roll of hundreds. He flipped through his cash before looking up. "How much will it take for you to leave me alone? Two thousand bucks? Three thousand?" 

Renjun sighed back. The camp could really use the money; it seemed like something new broke every day. Hell, he could really use the money, college was starting in the fall and textbooks and dorm costs were going to be a sum. But...what meant more to him, a little cash or camp? Camp, obviously, and no amount of money could save Camp Purple from a bad reputation that this kid could bring. "Yangyang, I don't want your money. I want an apology and for you to get the fuck out of here." 

Yangyang scoffed. "The Lius don't apologize. We don't have to." 

Renjun felt like he was going to explode. He had to get this stupid kid punished, if not for camp's sake but for his own. "If you don't come pay your dues to our camp then I'll tell your father about this behavior." 

"My father? How could a person like you get in contact with my father?" 

Renjun paused and snapped a quick photo of Yangyang, blunt still in his hand before heading over to google. He simply typed in Yangyang Liu and immediately came upon information about him and his entire family. His father's business number was right there on the front page. Renjun flipped his phone around to show Yangyang what he found. Immediately his face fell. 

"Fine. What do I need to do for you to not contact him?" 

Renjun had originally planned on just asking Yangyang to leave and never come back. But now, he had Yangyang in his hands; he had the power. He could really get back at Yangyang for annoying the crap out of him. He looked down at his phone and looked through the Liu google page. Yangyang was just a few months younger than him, done with high school. Slowly, Renjun smiled. 

"You're going to come work at Camp Purple." Camp Purple was pretty broke but Doyoung and Jaehyun had already discussed getting another staffer. Maintenance and the kitchen could really use the extra help. 

Yangyang's jaw dropped. "No..." he trailed off with the utmost dread. 

Renjun nodded. "Yes," he spoke slowly. "Yes. Give me your keys; let's drive to camp. I'm not letting you drive in your state." 

Yangyang slipped off the hood of the mustang and tossed Renjun his keys, staring at the ground like he was about to cry. Renjun only let himself marvel at how nice the car was for a moment before turning the key and starting the drive to camp. 

"You're really going to make me work?" Yangyang asked. 

"Yes; it'll be good for you. Everyone teenager should have a summer job if they're able," Renjun said. 

"Summer....job..." Yangyang trailed off as Renjun pulled into the camp parking lot. He locked up the door and lead Yangyang up to Doyoung and Jaehyun's office, knocking on the door. Quickly, Doyoung answered the door. 

"Renj- oh, you found the culprit," he spoke. Jaehyun got up and stood beside him. 

"Yup. This is Yangyang. He feels really guilty about everything so he's gonna work for us," Renjun said, gripping Yangyang's arm. Yangyang slowly nodded. 

"Yes," he said hesitantly. 

Jaehyun smiled. "Oh great! I'm glad you've had a change of heart. Now that Yukhei and Jungwoo are back together and sharing a bed there's a free space in one of the counselor cabins! You can move in there. We'll have you fill out the forms later but you can get started right away!" 

"We'll send you down with Renjun to the kitchen for now. Kun had just asked for some help; he needed someone to boil the pasta," Doyoung added. 

"It's nice to meet you Yangyang! We're glad to have you on board." Yangyang just grimaced back, and the camp directors waved and shut the door. 

Renjun began to lead Yangyang down to the kitchen. "How the hell am I supposed to know how to boil pasta?" Yangyang spoke up. 

Renjun's jaw dropped. "Aren't you eighteen?" 

"I mean, yeah, but I've never even been in a kitchen before," Yangyang answered with a laugh. 

Renjun stared, frightened, at the ground. Maybe this had been a bad idea. 


	11. Daily Life at Camp Purple

It was early in the morning, while Jeno and Jaemin had already ate and the campers were in breakfast when they were setting up the pool. It was warm but not too warm, and the breeze made Jeno feel endlessly comfortable. 

Jaemin gently put his things down and pulled Jeno into a tight hug, Jeno sighing softly into his embrace. This was nice, unbelievably nice. 

"So..." Jaemin said gently, raising his eyebrows. "When do you think I should ask for the cabin?" Jeno tensed in Jaemin's arms. "This week? Tonight?" 

Jeno's breathing climbed higher and Jaemin pulled away from the hug, looking at Jaemin with furrowed eyebrows. "Are you alright?" 

"Yeah, I'm great," Jeno answered with a little chuckle. 

"A-are you sure," Jaemin asked, reaching to hold his hands. Jaemin seemed really concerned and Jeno couldn't stand it; he had to get out of this. 

"Are you?" Jeno asked, pulling away from Jaemin to splash him with the pool water. Jaemin's jaw dropped before he broke into laughter, splashing Jeno back. 

And so they continued that way, splashing each other until they opened the pool way late, and Jaemin had no idea of where Jeno stood. But Jeno did, and the weight stayed in his heart. 

~~~~~~~~~~~

After breakfast Jungwoo was gathering his kids for their activities of the day when he felt a pair of strong arms wrap around his waist. He exhaled softly; he hadn't realized how much he'd missed that feeling until it was gone. 

"Hi baby," Yukhei mumbled into the crook of his neck. 

Jungwoo giggled. "Hi.." 

As soon as the children spotted Yukhei they started screaming and hugging his legs; he was by far the most popular counselor among the young kids. "Can Yukhei help us today?" 

"Is Yukhei free today?" Jungwoo asked, turning to look at him. 

"Yes he is. He would love to come help out the eight to nines." The campers started cheering and bouncing up and down, and Jungwoo and Yukhei shared a laugh. 

The two led the campers out of the dining hall, swinging in their hands. 

"Go change into sports clothes!" Jungwoo said, and the kids all dashed to their cabins to change.

"What do you have planned?" Yukhei whispered. 

Jungwoo shrugged and laughed, and Yukhei laughed along.

~~~~~~~~~~

After looking back and forth, Taeyong and Ten began to run. Today was a light day in terms of maintenance, for once, and they wanted a moment alone. Taeyong lead Ten along the grassy path until they reached the bridge above the little stream. Ten leaned over it to watch the rapid water and Taeyong wrapped his body around his. 

"It's so peaceful, isn't it?" Ten spoke, so quiet it was almost a whisper. 

"I don't think there's anywhere more peaceful than here," Taeyong answered. "Especially when the campers haven't come out yet." 

Ten spun around so he and Taeyong were facing each other and suddenly yet gently kissed him. Taeyong didn't even need a moment to kiss back. 

"Guys!" A loud voice yelled. Taeyong and Ten broke their kiss and looked to see Yuta pouting at them. "Why did you abandon me?" He whined. 

"Come on! Do you have any idea how often you ditch us for Sicheng?" Taeyong yelled back. 

Yuta didn't answer, just making a face and stomped off. Taeyong and Ten laughed and leaned back in. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was the late morning and the kids had come out of their cabins to play, children's happy yells and loud teenage chatter carrying all over the camp. Doyoung and Jaehyun watched over all of the camp from their little office attic, the window at the front giving them a view from right under the dining hall to the last set of cabins and the nature beyond. 

"Did we get Yangyang on the payroll yet? That was a narrow escape from doom...and he may cause more trouble again. God. Did Mark ever get those campers under control? And are all the cabins fixed up? And oh, I started looking for apartments on craigslist but the wifi's been so shit lately, there's, like, nothing good on craigslist, everything is so expensive...maybe I'll get an extra job when I go back to school or something..." 

"Doyoung..." 

"And did we ever call that one mom back?" 

"Doyoung," Jaehyun said a bit more firmly, rubbing his back. "Everything's okay. Yangyang has been fine and he filled out the papers this morning. Mark's campers like him and the cabins haven't broken in days. We have the whole rest of the summer to find an apartment and I'll take on more hours myself. And yes, we called that mom back three days ago. Everything is alright. Don't let your worry ruin this for you." 

Doyoung sighed deeply and hugged Jaehyun. "I hate it when you use your HR tactics from school on me." Jaehyun giggled. "But you're right. You're so right." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"I just can't believe making toast is so easy. Who knew?" Yangyang said, pulling the bread from the toaster for lunch's sandwiches. 

"Everyone. Everyone knew that," Renjun answered, just as the kitchen door burst open. Kun immediately dropped the jar of peanut butter in his hands. 

"Hey boys, sorry for the intrusion," Xiaojun says, putting a box of fruit down on the floor. "We forgot this one this morning." Kun stared at Xiaojun with a frightened look, Yangyang stared at Xiaojun with a sly smile, Xiaojun stared at Kun with a smirk, and Renjun stared at the sandwiches, trying not to laugh. 

Xiaojun completely ignored Yangyang and Renjun and walked over to Kun, leaning against the countertop. 

"Hey Kun," Xiaojun spoke, looking Kun up and down. 

"H-Hey," Kun asked. Even though they saw each other a couple times a week their relationship never progressed beyond this. 

"So...what are you up tomorrow?" He asked confidently. Kun's jaw dropped and Renjun and Yangyang shared a secret look of glee. This was the farthest they had ever gone. 

"A-actually," Kun stuttered, trying to concentrate on the sandwiches again. "Most of us are taking the day off tomorrow to hang out at the beach." 

"How would you feel if I stopped by?" Kun immediately spluttered and lost the ability to speak. 

"He'd feel great!" Renjun interrupted. "Just wonderful." 

"Alright then. I'll be there," Xiaojun answered, punctuating his words with a wink. Kun tried to pick up the peanut butter but dropped it again. "See you tomorrow," he said, and left. 

"So that's the infamous eyebrow boy?" Yangyang asked as soon as he was gone. 

"Yup," Kun said, forcefully spreading the peanut butter on the bread. 

"Wow, you're the most awkward person I have ever met in my life. Thank god he's a flirt." 

"Renjun, why the hell did you hire this kid?" Kun asked, ignoring Yangyang. 

"I am absolutely loathe to admit that Yangyang has ever been right about anything in his life. But he's right," Renjun said, and Kun glared as hard as he could. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Mark and Donghyuck were dying. It was the god damn hike and Mark and Donghyuck were not exactly the most fit people in the world, so this whole thing was hell, especially since they had to stay in front of the rest of the campers. 

Hand in hand they trudged up the hill, panting their lungs out. 

"This is the worst part of being the thirteen to fifteens counselor," Donghyuck complained. 

"If this is the worst part of your job then you're lucky," Mark answered, and they shared an exhausted chuckle. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was far past lunch and close to dinner when Chenle and Jisung were helping the ten to twelves finish up their art projects for the days. It was an easy day, as they had only made friendship bracelets, and the kids were old enough to not drive them insane. 

They both went to the string drawer to start some when they both reached for the orange string, their hands brushing against one anothers. Immediately, it felt like a jolt of lightning went through Chenle's fingers all the way up to his heart, beating hard in his chest. They'd been friends for so long; how come Jisung still had the power to do this to him? 

He flushed and let Jisung grab the string, not daring to make eye contact. But maybe he should've, because if he'd looked up, he would have realized Jisung was blushing too. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was dinnertime for the counselors and Yuta was holding Sicheng tight in his arms. As soon as he arrived he had collapsed into Yuta, groaning about how it had just been the most exhausting day of his life. 

"The kids are so tiring," Sicheng spoke. 

"Of course. And you're so good at handling them," Yuta answered, petting his hair. 

"But..." Sicheng paused and looked up at Yuta. "I don't wanna stop doing this." 

"What do you mean?" 

"I think I wanna do this. Work with little kids. Like...as a job." 

Yuta smiled down at him. "You'd be perfect for it." 

"Really?" Yuta nodded. "I'm glad. It's just so exciting, you know? College, then working with kids, with you the whole time... it's just amazing that I can decide what I want my future to look like." 

Yuta pecked Sicheng's lips. "I'll support you in whatever you want to do, as long as I can be by your side." 

~~~~~~~~~

It was finally bed time and the boys were crammed into their cabins, Taeil and Johnny pressed together on their tiny twin bed. They were spooning of course, the only comfortable position for two people to share on this bed, with Johnny wrapped around Taeil. 

"How do you think the cats are doing?" Taeil asked. 

"Our friend just sent us a text; they're doing great," Johnny answered, kissing Taeil's cheek. 

Taeil sighed. "We should finally get to bed." 

"You're right," Johnny answered. 

"Good night. I love you." 

Johnny smiled to himself. "I love you too." 


	12. The Day Off

"This is a terrible idea," Doyoung mumbled as he and Jaehyun walked down the path to the beach. "Why did we all decide to go? It should have been half of us take one day, and half of us take another." 

It was all of the counselor's big day off, one they had planned together since the start of camp, and they had voted to spend it at the beach by the docks and the lake. Most of them were excited to have a day to themselves, but of course, Doyoung was worried. 

"Love," Jaehyun said, squeezing Doyoung's hand. "We planned this day so all of us could be together, like back when we were campers. The big group of us together. And anyways, you don't have to worry. Mark, Donghyuck, and Renjun said they found some trustworthy people to watch camp for us while we're out having fun." 

"Are you sure?" Doyoung asked, looking up at Jaehyun with those soft, pretty eyes. 

"Always," Jaehyun answered with a grin, and just then, they all arrived. 

~~~~~~~~~~

As soon as the boys arrived they cheered, the younger (and more energetic) counselors running around and screaming. Johnny and Taeil shared a chuckle, walking slowly onto the beach.

They all took off their shoes and left them by the bathrooms, Johnny sighing softly as his feet touched the warm sand. 

"I forgot how nice it was down here," Taeil mumbled, the fresh breeze blowing through his hair. He and Taeil grabbed each other's hands and walked further out onto the beach.

"I know, right? It was always our favorite place." Johnny looked around before gesturing to the ground. "Wanna sit?" Taeil nodded and they plopped down in the sand. 

"I wish we had a blanket," Taeil said. 

"We never did have blankets, did we?" Johnny answered, and they shared a chuckle. After a long, relaxed pause, just watching the water on the shore and their friends run around, he spoke again. "I can't believe we had to get up early, even on our day off." 

"I know. It's terrible," Taeil answered. Slowly, Johnny turned to smile at Taeil. 

"Remember how we used to take a nap whenever we were here?" 

Taeil nodded back and immediately laid down. "A brilliant idea." 

Nearby Johnny and Taeil, Chenle and Jisung were sitting in the sand too, watching everyone around them. They had been invited by their friends to play a game but neither had wanted, just wanting to relax. But Chenle thought maybe that would have been a good idea. All he could do was notice all the other couples around them, cuddling, kissing, laughing, playing together. Chenle was so jealous it made his heart ache; he wanted that for him and Jisung so bad. 

Jisung gestured to the couples around them and Chenle realized he'd been thinking about it too. "Do you want that?" 

Chenle chuckled, trying to not let Jisung know how deeply he felt about this. "So, so bad." Jisung winced, and Chenle hoped he couldn't hear the yearning in his voice. 

"Me too," Jisung mumbled quietly after a moment, and Chenle could feel his face burning. "You know," he piped up, a bit louder. "Maybe one day we'll find our people." 

Chenle turned away in that moment. Jisung couldn't know that he was Chenle's person. Chenle was about to get up, go join the game to distract himself when Taeyong and Ten came over, all smiles and sitting on either side of Chenle and Jisung. Sandwiching them, they made it so neither Chenle nor Jisung could escape that moment. 

"Hey kiddos! What are you talking about?" Taeyong asked. 

"Um...all the camp couples. Everyone's so coupley today," Chenle answered. 

"Oooh, love! The most precious thing in the world," Ten spoke dramatically, grabbing Taeyong's hand behind Chenle and Jisung's backs and sharing a look with him. "You two haven't found it yet." 

Jisung sighed sadly. "Yeah." 

"You know, you can find love in the most unlikely places! I mean, I met the love of my life at summer camp," Taeyong said. 

"Taeyong is just so right! The love you've been looking for is probably someone you thought would never like you like that! It's probably just right under both of your noses," Ten added. Taeyong and Ten shared another look before sliding in closer to their camp kids, squishing Chenle and Jisung even closer together. Behind Chenle and Jisung's backs, Taeyong and Ten shared a high five. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Out by the shore, Jeno, Jaemin, Yukhei, and Renjun were playing volleyball all together. Jungwoo was standing off to the side, being their referee /scorekeeper/ cheerleader. Underneath the warm sun and surrounded by the cool water, everything seemed to be perfect. 

Yukhei and Renjun's team scored a point and Jungwoo leapt up, adding another rock to the piles he was using to keep score and cheering for his boyfriend. Yukhei paused the game to go over and give Jungwoo a big hug. 

"You're so cute," he mumbled into the crook of Jungwoo's neck. 

Jungwoo giggled. "And you're so handsome." 

"Come on!" Renjun yelled and Yukhei pouted, going back over to start the next round. 

Jungwoo thought for a moment. This moment was lovely, out here, being Yukhei's cheerleader. He could have been his cheerleader all of last year. But, the past was in the past. From now on, Jungwoo would be his cheerleader forever. 

Another round and Jeno and Jaemin won this time, cheering and hugging each other while Yukhei and Jungwoo pouted into a hug. Renjun called time out after to chew out Yukhei and Jungwoo, and Jeno and Jaemin had a moment to themselves. 

"We're killing this," Jaemin said. 

"I know!"

"We've always made the best team," Jaemin added more softly, with a little kiss to Jeno's cheek. And Jeno absolutely melted. 

He wished it could be like this always, so innocent and sweet and loving without the looming worry of sex and the argument that would come with it. Jeno sighed. There was a voice telling him in the back of his head that it could be like this always, all he would have to do is just tell Jaemin how he felt. 

But that couldn't happen. It would hurt Jaemin more than anything. So he has to just sit with this worry until the day finally comes. 

~~~~~~~~~~

While everyone else sat in the main part of the beach, Mark and Donghyuck were up on the cliffs, watching the action down below. They watched everyone (except Yuta and Sicheng who had disappeared off to who knows where for "privacy"), hand in hand, teasing and laughing to themselves. 

"Do you remember when we used to be the camp matchmakers?" Donghyuck asked. 

"Of course! How could I forget?" Mark answered. "We were the best." 

"You know...I think our services may be needed again." 

"Agreed," Mark said firmly. 

Donghyuck hummed. "Well, there are two couples in need of a little push in the right direction." Mark nodded. "That's Chenle and Jisung, and then Kun and eyebrow boy." 

"What's eyebrow boy's name?" Mark asked. 

"Actually...I don't know. Well that will be first on our matchmaking agenda: finding out eyebrow boy's name." 

"Then, we can get to work," Mark cheered. 

"And of course we'll be successful." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Yo," a voice spoke, a voice Kun thought about far too much while he was sitting with Doyoung and Jaehyun. 

Kun jumped and turned around, looking at a grinning Xiaojun. "You...you actually came here." 

Xiaojun shrugged and leaned in closer. "You told me you'd be here, right?" 

Immediately, everyone else dropped everything so they could get a good look at Xiaojun (known as eyebrow boy) and judge his interactions with Kun. Even Johnny and Taeil woke up. 

"You were right to name him eyebrow boy," Jeno mumbled to Renjun. 

"Your windswept hair looks nice," Xiaojun mumbled to Kun. Kun immediately looked like a fish out of water. 

"Ah- uh- hm-" 

Xiaojun laughed at his awkwardness. "You're cute." 

"I am not cute! I am a grown man," Kun said, fidgeting uncomfortably. Xiaojun just laughed at him again, and Kun looked down at the sand, feeling everyone's eyes on him. "How did you get here?" 

"I had some last tomatoes to drop off for my dad, so I went to camp before heading here," Xiaojun explained. 

"Well then..." Kun paused, thinking of something to say to his (handsome) face. "How is everything back at camp?" Kun asked. 

"It's going really smoothly actually. You know, Mark and Donghyuck's campers are actually doing a pretty good job of keeping the little ones in line. And Yangyang's totally got a handle on the kitchen-" 

"Wait WHAT?" Doyoung screamed, interrupting Xiaojun and sitting up with a start. "What the fuck guys!" He yelled, and was met with silence. 

"We're going back to camp!" Jaehyun yelled, everyone sighing and following Doyoung in running back to camp. When Jaehyun got close to Mark and Donghyuck, he glared at them with all his might. 

"Thanks guys...for giving my boyfriend a fucking heart attack!" 


	13. Kayaking

It was a beautiful day outside, so Johnny and Jungwoo had teamed up to give their campers a fun day. They had both wanted to take their campers kayaking, but they were on the younger side so they needed more staff present to do something like that. So, they decided to go together so that more staff would be on hand. 

Of course Yukhei had to come too, partially because it was his job to help out staff with these kinds of activities and mostly because he would get to spend time with Jungwoo. The three walked their campers down to the lake, discussing their plan as the staff at the lake explained how to use the kayaks. 

"One of us should stay here in case of an emergency, and two should drive around on the motorboat to keep an eye on the campers in the lake," Johnny said. 

"We'll take the motorboat!" Yukhei cheered, reaching for Jungwoo's hand.

"Do you have the lunches Kun made?" Johnny asked, and Jungwoo held up a basket full of sandwiches. 

"Alright then, we'll show you how to work the motorboat," one of the staff said once they were done explaining things to the kids. Johnny grabbed a beach chair and set it down directly in the sun, laying his legs over one of the arms. Yukhei and Jungwoo nodded at the staff member and followed, listening closely to his instructions. Once he was done they hopped on, following the kids onto the lake.

"Wahoo!" Yukhei screamed as soon as they started moving, the water spraying behind them as they moved rapidly along the water. Jungwoo laughed loudly and wrapped his arms around Yukhei's waist, watching him steer the motorboat around and between the campers. 

"Head that way!" Jungwoo reminded his campers, pointing toward the little beach across the lake. He and Johnny had explained everything earlier, but who could trust an eight to twelve year old to remember any instructions? He kept on hugging Yukhei's muscular frame, holding onto Yukhei as Yukhei held on to the boat. 

"Are you okay?" Yukhei asked loudly over the splashing of the water behind them and the hum of the motor. 

Jungwoo nodded and looked up at Yukhei. "Yeah. It's just... last time we kayaked we tipped." 

Yukhei laughed loudly. "That was my fault! And anyways, we can't tip this motorboat." 

"Are you sure?" 

"Yes babe," Yukhei answered. "Don't you remember? I was trying to flirt with you and I got so distracted by how cute you were that I tipped the whole thing." 

"Wait...you were flirting with me?" 

Yukhei tried hiding his laughter but he couldn't, bursting into loud laughter. "You didn't notice I was flirting with you?" 

"N-not that time," Jungwoo stuttered embarrassedly. 

"Of course I was," Yukhei said, hugging Jungwoo tightly with his free hand and shaking him. Jungwoo nestled into him and smiled. "I liked you so much and I tried to make it so obvious. And, you know, I still do." 

Jungwoo smiled up at him. "I know, Xuxi. Me too." 

Almost all of the campers had reached the beach on the opposite shore so Yukhei and Jungwoo headed there too, making sure everyone had arrived before handing out the sandwiches and snacks Kun had kindly packed for them. 

"How did you get him to do this?" Jungwoo asked him quietly. 

"He made Yangyang do something else," Yukhei answered as they ate their own sandwiches. 

"Yangyang is turning out to be a surprisingly good staff member," Jungwoo commented. 

"Eh," Yukhei answered with a shrug. "He's okay." Yukhei helped out in the kitchen a lot, so he knew him a bit better than some of the other staffers. "Yesterday we taught him what renting was. And the day before we taught him how to make cereal." 

Jungwoo paused for a moment. "Never mind." 

"He tries his best. Not because he actually cares but because he's terrified of Renjun." 

"I think everyone should be scared of Renjun," Jungwoo mumbled. 

"Exactly." 

When they were done eating Yukhei fitted his massive hand into Jungwoo's, the two leaning back against a large tree to watch all of the campers have fun and play. This was the best thing that could have happened; Yukhei had missed Jungwoo so much and had hoped that maybe something would happen this year at camp. But everything had gone ever better than expected, they were back together, so quickly into the summer, and it was like all the mistakes had never even happened. 

Jungwoo was grateful too, he had spent his entire freshman year dreaming of having Yukhei back by his side, and he had gotten it. Now, there was no way he would ever let him go again. 

Jungwoo rested his head in the crook of Yukhei's shoulder and Yukhei's big hand came up to play with his hair. Yukhei was quiet, for once, but it wasn't weird. They were just at peace. 

"I still can't believe you didn't realize I was flirting with you that time," Yukhei said. 

"I realized you were flirting a little! If I hadn't I would never have confessed," Jungwoo admitted. 

"A little? All I was doing was flirting with you! Yukhei cried, smiling down at Jungwoo. 

"You know how I am..." Jungwoo mumbled and pouted, and when the kids weren't looking, Yukhei pecked the pout away. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Back at the docks, Johnny was in heaven. He knew that Yukhei and Jungwoo would want to be together, of course, so it was easy to get them to do the more laborious task of running the motorboat. That meant he could just relax and have a break from the kids for the first time in forever. 

He was laying out on the beach chair sideways, his long legs swung over the arms and his head tilted backwards. He was half asleep and half awake, the sunning acting like a blanket over his shirtless frame. He exhaled softly. This moment was practically perfect. Nothing could make it better, except maybe Taeil being there of course. But this was still great. 

He was almost asleep when a soft sensation on his chest jolted him awake. He blinked open his eyes to see Taeil resting his head on Johnny's chest, sitting on the floor of the dock with his hair tickling Johnny's skin. 

Johnny's lips bloomed into a smile. "Hi darling," he spoke sleepily. 

"It's not good to sleep on the job, you know. What if there's an emergency?" Taeil teased. 

"You mean, Jungwoo and Yukhei tipping over the motorboat?" 

Taeil laughed at that and Johnny sat up in the seat, Taeil plopping himself down on Johnny's lap. Johnny wrapped his arm around his much smaller boyfriend's back to keep him steady and Taeil handed him a bag. 

"Ooh! What's this?"

"Just a snack. I figured you left all the lunches Kun packed with Yukhei and Jungwoo and forgot to grab one for yourself." 

Johnny gave his boyfriend a smile. "You know me too well." He reached into the bag and grabbed some doritos, opening it and sharing with his boyfriend. "How come you're here? Not that I mind literally at all..." 

Taeil chuckled. "It was my break," he explained. 

"So you'll have to go back at some point," Johnny answered with a pout. 

"Very sadly yes," Taeil answered. Johnny readjusted Taeil on his lap and dug back into the bag, pulling out some beef jerky. 

"Do you know how cute this is? It's like we're married and you packed me a lunch for work," Johnny said happily. Taeil's expression turned serious, and Johnny looked up at him. The marriage thing was something they hadn't really discussed. It was assumed it would happen one day, of course, neither of them wanted to be with anybody else ever again. But the question of when was something they were both a bit too shy to bring up. 

"Isn't it weird that Ten and Taeyong eloped?" Taeil said. 

"Oh my god right? That was so unexpected. Who thought they would be the first?" 

"Nobody," Taeil answered. 

"Not to mention it was very rude of them not to hold a wedding we could attend," Johnny commented.

"Right?" 

"They better have another ceremony and invite all of us." 

"Definitely. We can all be the groomsment and Chenle and Jisung can be the flower girl and the ring bearer." 

"Aren't they a little old for that?" 

Just then an iphone alarm began to ring and Taeil pulled out his phone and frowned, making it stop. 

"What's that?" Johnny asked. 

"I have to go back to camp," Taeil groaned. 

"Please, just stay," Johnny begged. "No one's gonna care." 

"Come on," Taeil answered, getting off of Johnny's lap and placing a little peck on his lips. "I'll see you later." 

"Fine," Johnny answered, waving after his boyfriend as he began to walk away. "I'll see you later." 

"Love you!" Taeil yelled back to him when he was far along the path.

"Love you more!" Johnny yelled back. 

"I'll fight you! I love you most!" Taeil screamed. 

"I love you too!" 


	14. The Dreaded Night

It was a night both Mark and Donghyuck were dreading: the teen movie night. 

They had let their campers loose and spent all day setting it up at the beach, gathering the snacks from Taeil, getting the butter and the salt and the popcorn and the popcorn maker, spending hours trying to figure out how to work the decades old projector. It was arduous labor, but they both knew it wouldn't be as bad as the actual movie time. Neither of them wanted to have whiny teenagers angry at them, leaving without supervision and worse, making out in front of them. 

But there was one plus, and it was that they were together. 

They had been so busy lately that it was rare they got moments with each other. Even at night in bed, there were two other couples and Yangyang in the cabin with them. Luckily though because of their counselor positions there were a few activities where they needed to combine their groups, and today was one of them. 

During dinner the pair went up to Doyoung and Jaehyun, holding hands nervously. 

"Hey guys, what's up?" Jaehyun asked. 

"Today's teen movie night, what movie is it gonna be?" Mark asked. 

"Oh, we picked it out earlier today! Let me go grab it," Jaehyun said, jogging up the stairs to their office. 

"Is it gonna be decent?" Donghyuck asked. Doyoung made a face and Mark and Donghyuck shared a worried look. 

Jaehyun brought it down and handed it to them, and Mark and Donghyuck's jaws dropped when they saw the title. 

"The emoji movie?" Mark angrily whispered so the campers wouldn't hear. 

"Really guys? What the hell. Do you want this to go horribly wrong?" Donghyuck groaned. 

Doyoung sighed. "Look; this was the best DVD we had in the back. I don't know what to tell you." 

"Well when our campers go missing I'm blaming you," Donghyuck answered. 

"How could the emoji movie be the best?" Mark said. 

"Believe me, it was," Jaehyun answered. 

Donghyuck and Mark shared a deep sigh. 

"We hate you guys," Donghyuck said. 

"Yup," Mark added, and the two walked over to their individual campers to talk. 

"Hey guys!" Mark said, and the campers looked up at him indignantly. The campers and Mark were at least civil now, but Mark knew that relationship rested on the edge of a knife. "Tonight's the teen movie night! It'll be great! We have snacks!" 

"What's the movie?" One of them asked. 

"Uh...you'll see!" Mark answered with a very uncomfortable chuckle. Immediately they all groaned. 

"It's gonna be some shitty kid's movie right?" 

"You don't know that!" Mark responded. 

"We're not going. We can have way more fun in the cabin." 

"Come on! There will be snacks! Free snacks!" 

The campers all huddled together and shared a whispered conversation. "Fine," the oldest of them spoke. "But the snacks better be good." 

Mark smiled. "Oh...they are." 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was after dinner and Mark and Donghyuck were leading their campers to the lakeside projector, hand in hand. The emoji movie dvd felt like a massive weight in the bag of snacks but it was so nice for Mark and Donghyuck to just be together that they could almost forget about it. 

Mark and Donghyuck swung their hands back and forth, smiling at each other in the twilight. This was so nice, just being together. In previous years there was always the urgency of camp's ending, the sadness that accompanied them because they knew it would all end at some point. That little anxiety that made everything moment less casual and sweet, knowing that they wouldn't be able to be together afterward for almost a whole year. 

But this time things were different. Now in the fall Donghyuck and Mark were going to be together, on the same dorm floor, able to see each other as much as they wanted. There were some nerves that came with that; they had never spent quite so much time together before. But they had worked for so many years before, right? So it had to work now. 

"I can't wait, you know?" Donghyuck said. 

"For what?" Mark answered. 

"For when we go to school of course," Donghyuck answered. 

"I mean, we should enjoy the summer, but..." 

"I know, I know. But I am just so excited for everything. Walking you to classes...restaurant dates...holding hands like this on campus..." 

Mark giggled and blushed. "You're so cute." 

"No you," Donghyuck quietly answered. 

"Well...me too. I want to show you all my favorite cafes and places to hang out. I wanna introduce you to all of my friends and show you off. I don't think they believe you're real...summer camp boyfriend sounds so fake." 

"I can't wait to prove your friends wrong," Donghyuck answered, pecking Mark's lips. "But first things first...we have to get through this." 

"You know...back when we were campers we all thought we hated the teen movie night. But I think we all secretly kinda liked it because we could make out and didn't have to fight for the cabins," Mark said. 

"Agreed," Donghyuck answered. "Taeyong and Ten would always sneak off and take the cabin though." 

"Well they were doing... other stuff," Mark said, blushing a little. 

"It's so cute that you still blush whenever we talk about sex," Donghyuck mumbled so the campers wouldn't hear, making Mark blush. 

"Ooh! Are you two a couple?" one of Donghyuck's campers asked. 

"Yes we are," Donghyuck said proudly. 

"Did you meet this summer?" another questioned. 

"No way. We met when we were campers, when I was twelve and he was thirteen," Donghyuck explained. 

"Wow, you've been together all that time?" 

"Yup," Mark answered proudly. 

"Mark, I'm surprised you even have a boyfriend," one of Mark's campers interrupted. 

"Oh shut the fuck up and leave him alone," Donghyuck answered, and Mark's campers immediately closed their mouths. 

"Maybe we shouldn't mess with him," they heard one of Mark's campers whisper, and Mark and Donghyuck shared a smile. Donghyuck squeezed Mark's hand protectively and they walked further down the path. 

Soon enough their campers started leaving them alone, talking (and gossiping) amongst themselves. 

"Why are you so quiet?" Donghyuck asked. 

"I'm trying to hear the camper gossip," Mark whispered. 

"Oh you wanna know? I'll just tell you later. My campers tell me everything," Donghyuck whispered back. 

"Seriously?" Mark whined before pouting, just as they stepped into the area where they set up the movie. 

The campers sat down and Mark and Donghyuck handed out the snacks, giving each other a quick hand squeeze for comfort before switching on the projector to show what movie it was. 

"THE FUCKING EMOJI MOVIE?" One of Mark's campers yelled. 

"The hell is your problem?" Another added. 

"When we agreed to come we knew it would suck, but it didn't have to be this bad..." One of Mark's shyest campers spoke up. 

"You think we wanted this? We don't have a choice. Doyoung and Jaehyun picked for us and we begged for a better movie. We don't wanna watch this shit either," Donghyuck responded. 

The campers were silent. 

"Fine," the oldest of Mark's campers said. Donghyuck and Mark shared a little smile; it was clear Donghyuck had won the older camper's respect. And so, they switched on the movie. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Twenty minutes in and Mark and Donghyuck were suffering. 

"This movie really does suck," Mark mumbled.

"Yeah. Our poor campers," Donghyuck whispered back. 

Mark hummed and played with his fingers before looking up at Donghyuck. "You know...this reminds me of the old teen movie nights." 

"Really baby boy?" Donghyuck said, a smirk on his lips. Mark bit his lip shyly and leaned in closer. 

"Y-You know... I'm sure all the teens are busy...doing..." 

"I know what you mean," Donghyuck whispered seductively. 

"I don't think they would notice if we-"

Donghyuck grabbed Mark by the back of his neck and tugged him closer. "Oh, I'm sure they wouldn't notice." 

~~~~~~~~~~

When the noise of the movie stopped and the home screen lit up the beach, Mark and Donghyuck pulled away from each other to see all of their campers staring at them. Mark immediately turned bright red. 

"Ew," one of the thirteen year olds said. 

"What?" Donghyuck asked. 

"Why the hell would you make out, on the job, in front of your campers? That's just weird," One of the sixteen year olds piped. 

"Oh come on, you guys were doing it too," Donghyuck spoke. 

"No, we were not," an eighteen year old said. 

"On the beach? In public? In front of everyone else? That's gross," a fifteen year old added. 

"I dunno, it was kinda hot," a fourteen year old said. 

Donghyuck retched in his mouth and Mark grimaced. 

"Alright come on guys," Donghyuck said, standing up. "Let's forget about this and get back to camp." 

"Oh hell no," the oldest of Mark's campers said. "We will not let you forget this." Mark's campers all spoke up in agreement, and Mark groaned. He was so fucked. 


	15. Hendery the Mystery

Yuta and Sicheng were fully appreciating their day off. Yukhei had volunteered to take Sicheng's kids so they had time to just relax together, cuddling and kissing in privacy on the ledge. 

"Hello?" A voice suddenly yelled. Yuta and Sicheng sat up, looking behind them back towards camp to find nobody there. Confused, they looked around them before staring down at the woodland at the bottom of the rocks. Staring back up at them was a very confused looking young man with sticks stuck in his hair. "Humans?" 

"Hi," Yuta answered with an awkward chuckle. "Yes, we're people." 

The man fell silent for a moment, thinking. "Where am I?" 

"Yosemite," Sicheng explained. 

He was silent for a long time. "Where in Yosemite?" 

"Camp Purple. A kid's summer camp," Yuta explained. 

Again, he was silent. "Oh." 

Sicheng and Yuta turned to look at each other worriedly before looking back down at the strange man. "Are you...are you lost?" 

The man slowly nodded. 

Yuta and Sicheng looked at each other. "What do we do?" Yuta whispered. Sicheng shrugged. "He seems kind of out of it..." he added. 

"I don't know how we could help," Sicheng answered. 

"We should go down to him." 

Sicheng shook his head quickly. "What if he tries to kill us? He seems weird..." 

Yuta sighed. "You're right. I mean...we could ask him to come up here? Then if he does try to kill us we can run back to camp and tell someone." 

Sicheng nodded. "Good idea." 

"Hey...could you maybe come up here? We can help you out from there," Yuta yelled down. 

"There's an easy path..." Sicheng started but trailed off when the guys started scaling the wall. 

"Dude! There's a path right there!" Yuta yelled but the guy ignored him, slowly climbing up the rocks before finally reaching where Sicheng and Yuta were sitting. He flopped down in between them and the couple stared at him in shock. 

"There's an easy path right there," Sicheng said, pointing over to the side. 

The man just stared at them. "Oh," he simply answered. Now that he was right next to him, Sicheng and Yuta could get a good look. He was very dirty but they could still tell he was young and definitely handsome, if extremely confused. He wasn't carrying anything except a water bottle attached to a belt. It was clear that he wouldn't try to kill them, at the very least. 

"So you're lost," Sicheng said, and the man nodded. 

"Where are you trying to go?" Yuta asked. 

"I don't know..." the man answered. "I really don't know." 

Yuta and Sicheng shared a worried look. "Well then...how did you get here?" 

"Me and my friends..." he started, looking down at his dirty fingers before blinking and starting again. "Me and my friends to all do a trip in the woods." 

"Like a vacation?" Yuta asked. 

"No, no," he answered. 

"Like..." Sicheng's voice dropped to a whisper. "Drugs?" 

"Yeah," the man answered, smiling a little. "Shrooms. We wanted to experience nature...in nature..." His voice grew distant and Yuta cleared his throat. "Yeah..." the weird guy continued. "They were really strong or something so I was out of it for a while. But when I sobered up...everything was gone. My friends, the car, our stuff...gone. So I've been trying to find people ever since." 

"A-are you okay?" Yuta asked worriedly. 

"Yeah man, it's been good. I've got this water," he said, shaking the water bottle. "And this," he added, pulling a block of uncooked ramen noodles from his pocket. 

"Is that all you've been eating?" Yuta asked. 

"Yeah. It's alright though." 

Yuta and Sicheng shared a look before standing up. "Alright. We're gonna take you back to camp with us and get you some real food." Sicheng spoke

"Really?" He asked, standing up as well. 

"Of course," Yuta answered. Sicheng and Yuta threw his arms over their shoulders and started walking him towards the dining hall. 

"You two are the coolest dudes ever, you know? Coolest dudes. What are your names?" 

"I'm Yuta, and this is Sicheng," Yuta said. "How about you?" 

"I'm Hendery," he answered. 

"Hendery. That's an... interesting name," Sicheng spoke. 

"Yeah man, right? A lot of things are interesting." 

"Um, Hendery, how old are you?" 

"Nineteen," he answered. 

Sicheng looked at him worriedly. "You're done with high school, right?" 

"Yeah man. Gonna be a sophomore next year. Woo Humbolt State!" He cheered. 

Yuta and Sicheng breathed a sigh of relief. "We're the same age then," Sicheng answered. 

"Oh hell yeah dude," Hendery spoke just as they reached the dining hall. Luckily it was empty and the two sat him down at one of the tables. 

"You go make him cereal, I'll get Doyoung and Jaehyun," Yuta whispered. Sicheng nodded and Yuta ran up to the office as Sicheng got him a bowl of cereal. Placing it down in front of him, Hendery looked at it inquisitvely before putting a spoonful in his mouth. 

He stared at the bowl in awe. "What is this?" 

"It's lucky charms," Sicheng answered. 

"Oh my god," Hendery breathed out. "It's delicious. Is...is that what they call this? The crunchy stuff in the milk?" 

"You mean...cereal?" 

Hendery gasped. "Oh yeah...I forgot." 

Sicheng stared at him, deadpan. "You forgot what cereal was." 

Hendery paused for a moment. "Yeah." 

He then began to absolutely devour the bowl of cereal and Sicheng just watched him when finally, to his relief, Yuta came back with Doyoung and Jaehyun behind him. 

"Yo!" Hendery cried, pushing the empty bowl aside. "More people!" Doyoung, Jaehyun, Yuta, and Sicheng all shared a look.

"Hello," Doyoung answered. "I'm Doyoung and this is Jaehyun, and we run this camp." 

"Yo. I'm Hendery." 

"So...Yuta and Sicheng told us about your situation and we wanna help out. Do you have any money?" Doyoung spoke

Hendery looked into his empty fanny pack and shook his head. "I think they all took it." 

"Well...do you have anywhere to go?" Jaehyun asked. 

"My friends back at school said I could crash on their couch for the summer for only like fifty bucks a month." 

"But...you have no money," Doyoung said. 

Hendery paused for a long time. "Yeah." 

Doyoung and Jaehyun shared a look and sighed before Jaehyun passed him a pile of bottles, clothes, and a towel. "How about you go take a shower, alright? It's right here next to the dining hall. When you come back we can figure something out." 

"Shower?" Hendery said excitedly. 

"Why don't I walk you there," Sicheng said, standing up. 

"Hell yeah man. We could shower together." 

"I'm just gonna walk you there," Sicheng firmly answered. 

"Sicheng's my boyfriend, by the way," Yuta spoke up. 

"Oh, sorry man. I didn't mean it like that. I meant in a friendship way." Everyone else stared at him uncomfortable. 

"Come on, let's go," Sicheng mumbled. 

"Shower!" Hendery cheered, and the dining hall door shut closed behind them. 

"He's...a character," Jaehyun said as soon as they were out of ear shot. 

"He's probably just a bit confused. I mean, he's been alone in the woods for who knows how long living off of uncooked ramen noodles," Yuta answered. 

"True, true," Jaehyun mumbled. 

Yuta sighed. "I kinda feel bad for him. I mean, he's got no money and nowhere to go." 

Doyoung hummed. "You know, Yangyang's been a big help, but Renjun and Kun have been begging for more people. They say it's a struggle when Yukhei can't help them, especially for clean up times..." 

"Actually, we put out an email for donations and a bunch of parents have been pitching in," Jaehyun added. "We could definitely afford to take on another person." 

"You mean him?" Yuta asked with surprise. 

"I mean if Yangyang is capable of doing it, I think anybody is capable," Doyoung answered. 

"But where would this guy sleep?" Yuta asked.

"He could sleep on the floor in one of the cabins. He doesn't seem like the type of person who would mind," Jaehyun said. 

Yuta sighed. "You're right. He's right here and we could help him out a bit." 

Just then Sicheng and Hendery returned. Yuta and Sicheng had been right; he really was handsome as hell under all of that dirt and in fresh clothes. He looked a little less dopey as well. 

"Thanks for the shower, dudes," he said. 

"No problem," Jaehyun said. 

"Now sit down," Doyoung spoke, and with a glance around Hendery did as he was told. "Now look, you came at a good time, because we've actually been looking for more staff members. You could work in the kitchen and help prepare meals for the campers, and we'll pay you minimum wage, plus you can sleep in the cabins for free." 

"On the floor," Jaehyun added. "But for free." 

"Money?" Hendery gasped. 

"Yup. Money," Doyoung answered. 

"Oh yeah! I'd love to work here," Hendery answered. 

"Alright then. Welcome aboard. We'll get you started right away," Jaehyun spoke

"Kun! Renjun!" Doyoung yelled, and Kun and Renjun poked their way out of the kitchen. 

"We got you another staff member," Jaehyun said. 

"We found him in the woods!" Yuta said excitedly. 

Kun's face immediately fell. "Another one?" 


	16. Their Favorite Game

Now that there were two new faces among the counselors at Camp Purple, the boys all decided they should do something fun to welcome them in. And what better (and more fitting) way to welcome them than a group game of truth or dare? 

They all crowded around the dining hall at night once the campers were alseep; but they were awake and ready to play. 

"One of the newbies should go first," Donghyuck said. 

"Me!" Hendery said excitedly. "Yukhei, truth or dare?" 

"We have to start with dare!" 

Hendery looked at the cereal and smirked. "You know those things?" 

Everyone paused. "The cereal, you mean?" Sicheng said. 

"Hell yeah," Hendery answered. "Yukhei, you and Jungwoo make out and pass the cereal between your mouths." 

Jungwoo physically gagged. "Won't it get soggy?" Yukhei asked

"That's the fun of it. It's sexy," Hendery answered. 

Everyone looked at each other with confusion as Jungwoo defeatedly put some lucky charms into his mouth. He leaned over to Yukhei and they kissed and a few moments later, they were separating and Yukhei was spitting them into the trash. 

Yukhei cleared his throat. "Anyways, Kun, truth or dare?" 

Kun sighed. "I'm scared, but I'll do dare." 

Yukhei slowly smiled mischeviously. "Next time you see Xiaojun I dare you to tell him that his eyebrows are sexy." 

Kun's jaw dropped. "Wait, what?" 

"I know you think it. So admit it," Yukhei responded. 

Kun groaned and whined. "I hate you." 

Yukhei giggled and everyone smiled; they were excited to see how it would turn out later. 

Kun cleared his throat. "Anyways, Jisung, truth or dare?" 

"After those two, I'm going with truth." 

"Have you ever been in love before?" 

Jisung froze, and Chenle did too. "Yes," Jisung answered. "I have." 

Chenle froze. Who was it? Why had Jisung never mentioned them before? Was he still in love with Kun like Jisung had said all those summers ago? 

"Who?" Kun asked. 

"That wasn't part of the question. Johnny, truth or dare?" 

Chenle listened to everyone whisper around him and felt his heart break. 

"Hm, I'll pick dare," Johnny answered. 

Chenle shook himself out of this and tried to forget about what Jisung said. 

"Uh....go sit on Taeil's lap for the rest of the game." 

"He'll crush me!" Taeil whined as Johnny sweetly nestled onto his lap. 

"I should do this more often," Johnny said as Taeil whimpered, before wrapping his arms around his boyfriend. "Taeyong, truth or dare?" 

"Dare!" Taeyong cheered. 

"How about you give your boyfriend a lap dance!" 

"Yay!" Taeyong cheered and Ten pumped his first as he placed himself on Ten's lap and began to dance around. 

"Johnny, why did you do this? None of us wanted to see that," Renjun whined. 

"On the contrary, that's hot," Hendery said. 

"Agreed," Yangyang added. 

"Well you haven't known them since you were thirteen," Sicheng mumbled. 

"Time's up!" Johnny called. "You're welcome." 

"Thank you!" Ten said sweetly, giving his boyfriend a peck on the cheek. 

Taeyong looked around the room before his eyes fell on Chenle. "Truth or dare?" He asked the high schooler. 

"Dare," Chenle said firmly. He was not in the mood to admit anything. 

"Hm...I dare you to give the most attractive person in the room a kiss. It doesn't matter if they have a boyfriend or not." 

Chenle gave Taeyong a death glare because he knew exactly who Chenle thought was the most attractive person in the room. And that person definitely does not have a boyfriend. 

But that person has been in love before, Chenle thought as he looked over at Jisung, sitting right next to him. He may be in love still. And Chenle knew it wasn't with him. 

He tapped Jisung on the shoulder and Jisung looked at him in surprise. 

"M-me?" 

All Chenle could do was nod. 

"O-oh," Jisung answered, and Chenle closed his eyes too quickly to see the smile on Jisung's face when he leaned in to press their lips together. 

The kiss didn't last very long because Chenle pulled away quickly. He didn't want to think about how Jisung probably had someone else's face in his mind when he kissed Chenle. 

Jisung frowned as Chenle scanned the room for the next player. "Jaemin, truth or dare?" 

"There haven't been enough truths yet, so I'll pick that." 

"Hmm...I know you and Jeno have been planning to...you know...have you guys gotten a chance yet?" 

"No!" Jaemin whined loudly and Jeno looked at his phone. "Everyone's always in the damn cabin, especially now that Yangyang's moved in." 

"I promise we'll clear out the cabin tomorrow, all day," Mark said. 

"Yeah. I know you guys need your....time," Donghyuck added with a wink. 

"Us too," Yukhei said with a nod at Jungwoo. 

"I'll just crash in my car," Yangyang added. 

Jeno kept on staring at his phone; this was the worst thing he could possibly imagine. He was hoping his cabinmates would be selfish enough to stay in there so Jeno and Jaemin would never get a chance. Jaemin gave him a shy, excited smile, and Jeno managed to muster one back. 

"Are you okay?" Jaemin whispered to Jeno. 

"Of course," Jeno answered and Jeno knew he had to make up an excuse when Jaemin gave him a look. "My stomach hurts a little, that's all." Jaemin pouted and started rubbing Jeno's back. "Don't worry about me. Just go." 

"Donghyuck, truth or dare?" Jaemin asked, although not with the same excitement as before. 

"I'm too lazy to get up so truth." 

"What's the most illegal thing you've ever done?" 

"Hmm...gotten a tattoo while underaged, I guess." 

"How?" Doyoung cried. 

"My friend did it for me," Donghyuck responded. Mark smiled and blushed a little and Donghyuck whispered something in his ear that made him giggle. He cleared his throat. "Anyways, Doyoung, truth or dare?" 

"Truth," Doyoung said firmly. 

"Did you and Jaehyun ever send each other nudes?" 

They both made faces. "That's so high school," Jaehyun answered. 

"So...when you guys were in high school?" Donghyuck asked for clarification. 

"I don't think so," Doyoung answered. 

"Technically that would be child pornography," Kun mumbled. 

"We've always been very mature," Jaehyun said. 

"Bo-ring!" Donghyuck answered. 

Doyoung rolled his eyes. "Renjun, truth or dare?" 

"Since it's Doyoung I'll say dare." 

"Lick Yangyang's foot," Doyoung said. 

"Easy. He has rich person feet how dirty can they be?" Renjun said as Yangyang took off his sock. 

"I've been living at a summer camp for six days now; I dunno..." Yangyang answered, as Renjun bent down and licked Yangyang's toe. 

He sat up and went back to his seat. "That wasn't so bad. But if I find out any of you have a foot fetish, you're dead." 

"Don't worry, that was the least sexy thing I've ever seen," Ten answered. 

"Good. Now, Sicheng, truth or dare?" 

"I'm gonna say truth," Sicheng answered. "I don't wanna do that." 

Renjun chuckled to himself. "What's your most embarrassing jack off?" 

Sicheng thought for a moment. "Actually, to be honest, I've probably only ever done that once or twice in my life. My parents thought it was an act of the devil and I was always afraid they'd catch me so I never did, and when they weren't around I was here and we share cabins so..." 

"Only once or twice? In your life?" Yukhei mumbled. 

"I'm so, so, sorry," Jaehyun said. 

"Are you okay?" Ten asked. 

"Yeah, yeah, it's alright guys. There are things I'm still learning about, I've only been away a month or so after all," Sicheng answered. "Hm...alright, Yangyang, truth or dare?" 

"I'm afraid...so truth." 

"Which one of us do you think is the cutest?"

"Oh, Renjun, definitely. I'm terrified of him but that's what makes him sexy," Yangyang answered, and everyone burst out laughing. "What?" he whined. 

"You managed to pick the only straight guy here," Renjun explained. Yangyang joined in laughing, and turned to look at everyone. "Jaehyun, truth or dare?" 

"I'll say dare." 

Yangyang smiled. "I dare you to go into the office and...draw Doyoung like one of your french girls," he said with a wink. 

"Oh. Not so bad; I expected worse," Doyoung said as he and Jaehyun went up to the office. They came down a few minutes later and Jaehyun handed Yangyang a piece of paper. 

"Is this accurate?" Yangyang asked, looking at the drawing of nude Doyoung. 

"I'm not the greatest artist but yeah," Jaehyun answered. 

"Huh. Sexier than expected," Yangyang said. "Anyways, it's your turn." 

"Hm...Jungwoo, truth or dare?" 

"Dare, but please don't give me anything like that," Jungwoo whined. 

"I dare you to give Yukhei a spiderman kiss." 

"What's that?" Jungwoo asked as Yukhei backed up against the wall. 

"Kiss him while he's doing a handstand," Jaehyun explained as Yukhei put his legs up against the wall in a handstand. Jungwoo giggled and bent down to peck his lips and Yukhei quickly got down, panting heavily. They giggled at each other and sat back down, holding hands. 

"That was really hard!" Yukhei whined. 

"My turn!" Jungwoo cheered. "Jeno, truth or dare?" 

"Hm, truth," he answered, he didn't wanna have to do anything sexual. Jaemin kept on rubbing his back concernedly and asking him if he was feeling better but in his mind he was definitely not. 

"So tomorrow..." Jeno's blood went cold at the thought. "Do you wanna be the top or bottom?" 

Jeno hadn't even begun to think of a question like that. His breathing began to pick up and Jaemin looked really worried. 

"Are you okay? Do you wanna go back to the cabin? Love..." Jaemin said, completely ignoring Jungwoo's question. 

"I'm fine, I'm fine," Jeno said. 

"No really, you look so..." Jaemin trailed off. 

"I'm all good, I promise babe," Jeno said, trying to clear his mind enough to seem okay. "And Jungwoo, I'm gonna be the top...definitely." 

"Ooo!" Everyone cheered but Jaemin couldn't even hear them, still glancing at Jeno with concern. 

"Babe, I'm fine," Jeno sternly whispered in Jaemin's ear, but Jaemin couldn't stop looking at him with those worried eyes. At this point, Jeno had to just ignore it. "Mark, truth or dare?" 

"Um, I'll pick truth too," Mark said, and Jeno tried to think of a question that would distract everyone from him and Jaemin. 

"Have you had sex yet?" 

Mark slowly smiled and nodded. "Yeah..." 

"Come on, you've got to give us the story," Yangyang said. 

"Well...maybe a year and a half ago or so, Donghyuck's parents took their whole family on a ski trip, and the lodge happened to be really close to my house so they invited me to come too. So I came, and they got the two of us our own room, so..." Mark trailed off with an embarrassed smile. Donghyuck just wrapped an arm around his shoulders as Mark got all shy.

"That's so cute!" Johnny cried, and everyone voiced their agreement. 

"Um, anyways...Taeil, truth or dare?" 

"Let's do dare," Taeil answered. 

Mark giggled. "How about you and Johnny switch clothes for the rest of the night?" Everyone else laughed as Taeil and Johnny defeatedly went into the kitchen to go change in privacy. They came back a few minutes later and everyone burst out laughing; Johnny was wearing a crop top and cut off pants, tight to his skin, and Taeil looked like he was drowning in fabric. 

"You're really cute," Johnny mumbled. 

"I can barely make the pants stay up!" Taeil whined. "Ugh. Ten, truth or dare?" 

"I'm way too lazy so I'll do truth." 

"What's the worst sex you've ever had?" Taeil asked. 

"Oh, definitely the first time," Ten answered, everyone slowly remembering and laughing. 

"Wait, what? Why was it bad?" Hendery asked. 

"It was here, actually. Me and Taeyong's second year of camp, so I was fifteen and he was sixteen. And we were almost done when Jisung fucking walked in!" 

"I was eleven, okay? I was much more traumatised by that than you guys," Jisung said. 

"Plus he used to call us mom and dad back then so..." Taeyong trailed off. 

"That does sound horrible," Yangyang mumbled. 

"I mean, I've had worse, but still pretty bad," Hendery added. Nobody wanted to hear what sex could be worse than that so they all moved on. 

"Yuta, truth or dare?" 

"I'll pick dare!" Yuta said excitedly. 

Ten smirked. "I dare you to skinny dip in the pool." 

Everyone began to giggle as both Yuta and Sicheng's eyes grew wider. Yuta cleared his throat and smiled. "You know what? Fuck it. This might be fun." 

"Yeah!" Hendery cheered, and they all made their way out of the dining hall. As quietly as possible they made their way to the pool and after whispering for everyone to not look, Yuta stripped down. With their backs all turned they heard a splash, then a squeak, then the sound of him coming out of the water. 

Sicheng ignored Yuta's orders not to look and wrapped a towel around his shoulders, helping him get his clothes back in. 

"Let's go I'm freezing!" Yuta whisper yelled, and they all ran back to the dining hall. When they were back in, Sicheng huddled close to Yuta. "Why are you blushing?" Yuta asked. 

"You're sexier than I remember," Sicheng mumbled, and Yuta smirked at him, scanning the group. 

"Hendery, truth or dare?" he asked. 

"Erm...truth." 

"What do you think of all of us so far?" 

"Honestly man...I love you. I love you all," he spoke. 

"Aww!" Doyoung cooed. 

"Hey guys, let's go to bed," Jaemin suddenly spoke up. "Jeno's not feeling very well." 

"Getting ready for your big day?" Taeyong teased. 

Jaemin shook his head, rubbing the back of Jeno's neck. "I just want him to feel better." 

But Jeno didn't think he could. 


	17. Jeno's Worst Fear

After the game of truth or dare last night, neither Jeno nor Jaemin had been able to sleep, for varying reasons. Jeno knew why he was awake, his stomach burning with nerves. Jaemin was sort of a mystery, although Jeno figured he was nervous too, excited but nervous. But maybe it was due to this stomach ache Jeno was pretending to have. Jaemin seemed to think it was serious. 

They had both spent hours trying to get some rest, Jeno laying on his back and Jaemin on his side, rubbing Jeno's stomach. 

"Does it feel better?" He whispered, trying not to disturb their cabinmates. 

"Yes," Jeno answered. It was the bazillionth time last night he had told Jaemin that. But Jaemin must have picked up on his anxiety or something because all he did was hum and keep on rubbing Jeno's stomach in circles. 

Jaemin started speaking slowly. "How do you feel about tomorrow? Are you feeling okay about it? Are you excited? Are you ready?" 

Jeno took in a deep sigh. Somehow, Jaemin had asked this question even more times than he'd asked about Jeno's stomach that night. And Jeno couldn't take it; it was just making him more anxious. 

"I'm fine, Jaemin. I'm fine. I swear to god," he whispered and exhaled. Immediately he felt guilty; Jeno had been really stern with Jaemin. They had never spoken like that to each other before. 

Jaemin swallowed and tensed, but didn't stop rubbing Jeno's stomach. Now he just felt worse; he knew Jaemin was just looking out for him. 

"A-are you sure?" Jaemin stuttered. 

Jeno sighed, trying to keep the frustration out of his voice. "I'm sure," he said, his voice sickly sweet with how much he was trying to control it. "Now we should probably try to sleep." 

"Okay," Jaemin said softly. But as hard as they tried, neither of them could. 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was the next day and minus Jaemin of course, everyone had cleared out of Jeno's cabin for the day. The pool is locked up; no counselors or campers allowed inside. And Jeno is so anxious he could cry. 

To his dismay his cabinmates (Mark, Donghyuck, Yukhei, Jungwoo, and Yangyang) followed through their promise from the previous evening to give Jaemin and Jeno the cabin to themselves. Jeno couldn't escape this no matter how much he wanted to. It was the day for him to lose his virginity. 

He still was not sure why he didn't want to but just thinking about it made him nervous, and not in the good, excited way it should. But how could he do that to Jaemin after all of these years of lying? How could Jeno break his heart like that? 

Deep in his heart, Jeno knew Jaemin's heart would not be broken, especially after the way he acted last night, asking so much if he felt okay, if he was ready. But he knew no matter how understanding Jaemin was he would still be hurt, just a little. Jeno couldn't do that to Jaemin; he just couldn't. 

He was standing outside of their cabin trembling. He had spent hours finding different things to do to procrastinate but there was nothing now, especially after Doyoung and Jaehyun insisted he go back, that Jaemin was waiting for him. He had to just do it. He had to get it over with. 

With a grimace he pushed he way inside to find Jaemin laying down in the bed shirtless, scrolling through his phone. Jeno flushed; not just because it was hot in there but god was Jaemin pretty. That didn't make this any better though; it didn't make it any easier. 

Jaemin finally noticed Jeno and smiled slowly, tossing his phone into his bag. "Hi baby," Jaemin said, his voice low. 

"Hey," Jeno answered, staring down at the floor. 

"Are you alright? Are you ready?" Jaemin asked. 

Jeno chuckled. "Stop asking me that." 

Jaemin smirked and slid out of bed, just in his pastel pink boxers, and Jeno flushed and looked away. Why couldn't he just feel comfortable? Jaemin was so pretty and perfect. Without a moment's pause Jaemin wrapped his arms around Jeno and kissed him, in that languid way Jeno was obsessed with. 

But almost as soon as Jaemin started he stopped, and when Jeno opened his eyes he saw Jaemin looking at him with the utmost concern. Oh god oh god oh god. 

"You're not ready," Jaemin said flatly. 

Fuck. Jeno snorted and faked a chuckle. "Babe, what are you talking about? You keep saying this but listen to me, I am! I swear." 

Jaemin began to slowly shake his head. "You're not. I know you're not." 

"Come on-" 

"Jeno don't do this. I've known you for six years and I've been dating you for five. Wh-why didn't you tell me? I gave you so many outs..." Jaemin gave the floor a pained stare. 

Jeno froze, trying so, so hard to keep up this act any more but he couldn't do it, the tears starting to spill from his eyes. Jaemin gasped and threw on a shirt before pulling Jeno into his arms. 

"I just didn't want to seem lame or stupid, I just wanted to make you happy..." Jeno cried into Jaemin's shoulder. 

"Come here," Jaemin mumbled, leading Jeno to the bed so they could sit down next to each other. Jaemin ran his fingers through Jeno's hair, petting him softly. He used his other hand to entangle his fingers with Jeno's, both of their hands shaking. Jeno kept crying, softer now because of Jaemin's soft and pure touch. "I'm so stupid...I knew something was wrong, I should've trusted my gut but I wanted to listen to what you were saying, you know? I just, I'm sorry...I'm so sorry... I-I hope you know that your happiness and comfort means far more to me than sex. I mean, I would hope you'd know that, after five years..." 

"I was just afraid," Jeno choked out, "I was just afraid you'd be so angry and disappointed that you'd leave me..." 

Jaemin's fingers froze in Jeno's hair and slowly, he put them back in his lap. "You...you thought I would leave you?" 

Jeno hiccuped and nodded. "Or that you'd be angry, or-" 

He paused at the sound of Jaemin taking in a deep breath. "You really thought that...after five years, you really thought that..." 

Jeno could feel Jaemin tense and he started trembling again; now something was really wrong. "I just-" 

"You think that lowly of me?" Jaemin interrupted, looking at Jeno sternly. "You think I'm the kind of person who would leave their boyfriend of five years just because they're not ready to have sex?" 

Jeno looked at his lap. It was true. Jaemin wasn't that kind of person. 

"Is sex something I want someday? Well, yes. Only with you though. Only if you would want to. But is it something at all important to me? No! Fuck no. What's important to me is you Jeno, and your happiness, and your comfort. I don't care. I don't care! I would have waited forever if you wanted. If you never wanted to, I would have been okay with that too." 

Jeno looked up at Jaemin with furrowed brows. "Would have?" 

Jaemin sighed. "I trust you in whatever you want, and I love you with every part of myself. And I am always honest with you. I don't think I even could lie to you at all, let alone for years on end." Jeno winced and stared at his lap. "Why did you lie to me for so long? Why?" 

"I was just afraid," Jeno answered after a long pause. 

Jaemin began to shake his head. "I can't believe you think so low of me. I can't believe you think I'm that type of guy, after so long. After so many years. How could you even want to be with me if you don't trust me enough to respect you? How could you be with a guy who would be mad for not having sex?" 

Jeno watched Jaemin's eyes flash with fire, his breaths loud and heavy and his whole body tense. He sighed. "Jaemin, this is why I didn't want to admit I wasn't ready, because I knew you would be angry." 

Jaemin stood up. "That's not why I'm angry and you know it. I'm angry because you don't trust me and you've secretly thought I was an asshole. For years! Fuck Jeno, I'm angry because you don't trust me and maybe don't even love me!" 

"Wait, what?" Jeno cried, but Jaemin was already storming out of the cabin, slamming the door behind him. In that empty room, the sound of Jaemin's yelling ringing in his ears, the first time he had ever heard him yell like that, Jeno felt frozen. 

Jeno's face fell into his palms, tears starting anew. It wasn't at all in the way he'd expected. But Jeno's worst fear, that Jaemin would leave him over this, had come true. 


	18. The Past is in the Past

It was the kind of day where Jungwoo did not want to run and around and try and wrangle eight to nine year olds. It was the kind of day where he definitely did wanat some help from other counselors, so after having a conversation with Chenle and Jisung at breakfast, he decided to do a special activity at the art shack with his campers. Even better, Yukhei wasn't needed anywhere else too, so he could come along and help out too. 

Luckily, Chenle and Jisung had already put the little bowls his campers had made earlier into the kiln, so today they just got to paint them, an easy activity for the campers and especially the counselors. 

Chenle and Jisung got the campers sitting down in the art shack and they stood up in front of them, showing where and how to paint and other special instructions. Jungwoo watched them affectionately; in the first couple days of camp they had been so shy with the campers (after all they weren't much older than a lot of them). But now they were confident in their work, and the campers really did pay attention. 

Once they finished explaining all kinds of kids had questions, the two running around the shack to answer them and jog their creative ideas. 

"You two make such a great team," Yukhei suddenly spoke up, Jisung and Chenle immediately freezing and blushing. "A perfect pair," he teased. 

"Agreed," Jungwoo said loudly, Chenle and Jisung smiling to themselves but refusing to lock eyes. 

"I agree too!" One of Jungwoo's campers spoke up, followed by the rest of them. 

"Yeah! Counselor Jungwoo and Counselor Yukhei are boyfriends. Are you two boyfriends?" Another asked. 

Jisung and Chenle immediately began to stammer. "Um, no," Jisung said slowly and quietly, the smile immediately leaving Chenle's face. 

Immediately, all of the campers got super pissed off. "What? Why?" One kid asked. 

"Counselor Jisung, do you have a boyfriend?" Another asked, and Jisung shook his head. "Counselor Chenle, do you have a boyfriend?" He asked, and it was now Chenle's turn to shake his head. "Then you two should be boyfriends!" 

Jungwoo and Yukhei shared a laugh; the campers were doing a better job at getting Chenle and Jisung together than any of the other counselors and especially Chenle and Jisung themselves. 

"You guys would better boyfriends than the lifeguard guys. They used to be good boyfriends but now they don't talk to each other," one of the campers spoke up. 

"Wait, you mean Jeno and Jaemin?" Yukhei asked with concern, and all of the campers nodded. Yukhei, Jungwoo, Chenle, and Jisung all shared a worried look. 

"What happened?" Jungwoo asked. 

"I dunno," one of the campers casually responded. "Anyways, Counselor Chenle and Counselor Jisung wouldn't do that. They would be good boyfriends." 

The camper's chatter immediately turned back Chenle and Jisung and although they were still worried about Jeno and Jaemin, they couldn't help but be a little shy. Chenle's heart hurt though, remembering Jisung's answer in truth or dare all of those days ago. He had loved someone else, and maybe still did. Would he feel uncomfortable with all of the teasing? Was he wishing he was being teased by the campers about being with someone else? 

Suddenly, Jisung quietly slid behind Chenle. "I'm gonna sneak out and run to the store for some secret snacks. Want some?" 

"Hell yeah," Chenle answered with a quiet giggle. 

"And maybe we can escape some of this teasing," Jisung added. 

"They're eight and nine. They'll remember," Chenle answered. Jisung pouted and secretly snuck out of the door. 

"Ooh, what did Jisung say to you? Were you whispering lovey dovey things?" One of the campers asked, and soon enough, all of the campers were pestering Chenle for an explanation. Chenle sighed and rolled his eyes. 

"He was asking me about the art supplies, okay?" 

"Chenle and Jisung sitting in a tree, k-i-s-s-i-n-g!" The campers began to chant, and even though Chenle was frustrated, he couldn't help but smile. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Yukhei felt great. With four counselors and a simple but entertaining activity, managing these campers had been easy. Although art wasn't exactly his strong suit, and his help often ruined more bowls than made them better, it was nice watching his boyfriend be just so gentle and sweet with the kids. Plus, he was pretty good at the art. 

All of the sudden Jungwoo sat up, pulling his phone out of his back pocket. His eyebrows furrowed and he frowned, walking towards the door. 

"Who is it?" Yukhei asked. 

"My college friends. They wanna do a group call." Yukhei immediately tensed, nerves starting to grow. But he didn't wanna inhibit his boyfriend or make him feel weird. 

"Go ahead; we've got enough staff around here." 

Jungwoo nodded, Yukhei noticing the way he too was tensed. He must have been nervous as well. He walked out of the cabin and to the picnic tables out front, answering the phone. Yukhei checked to make sure Chenle and Jisung had a handle on things, and when he was sure they did, he turned his attention to looking and listening to Jungwoo. 

He sighed, hiding in the doorway so his boyfriend couldn't see him, watching Jungwoo quietly listen in on the small talk about his friend's lives. Yukhei steeled himself. He knew just how nervous Jungwoo was and prepared himself just in case Jungwoo doesn't tell them he and Yukhei are back together or if he says something...less than perfect. He'll be understanding. It's not just anyone, after all. It's his Jungwoo. 

"I'm good, I'm good," Jungwoo finally said, the first time he'd really spoken since he got on the call. "Yeah, I really am working at that summer camp. I can't believe you guys thought I was joking." 

Something that sounded like laughter came from the phone. "Don't tease!" Jungwoo whined. "You guys know how much I love this place. Working at camp is not just for teenagers." 

More talking on the other side. "Guys stop! I-I really like it here..." Yukhei's blood began to boil; Jungwoo didn't just sound like he was teasing back anymore. It was fine if Jungwoo's friends were rude to him, but if they were rude to Jungwoo... he couldn't stand it.

"Really....please stop...." Jungwoo mumbled. Loud noises continued to come from the phone and it was a long time before Jungwoo spoke again. 

"Oh yeah, summer camp, summer love..." Jungwoo said, perking up a little, and Yukhei sat up himself. Now he was beginning to get really nervous. "It is like a movie." 

"I did, I did find it," Jungwoo said. Was Jungwoo going to tell them about him? 

Jungwoo began to grow nervous, fidgeting and frowning down at the grassy ground, and Yukhei did too. "W-well...d-do you guys remember the boyfriend I had at the beginning of freshman year?" 

Yukhei heard laughter from the phone and Yukhei pouted at the ground, embarrassment clouding him. He heard loud chatter and Jungwoo didn't speak for a long, long time. "Yeah. I am back together with him." 

More loud noises that made Yukhei almost want to cry, so much he couldn't even spy on Jungwoo anymore. 

"G-guys," Jungwoo whined. "Yukhei i-is an angel. He's always nice to me, always. He even took me b-back after I broke his heart. He treats me so well no matter what and he's nice and smart and funny and you guys are just judgemental." 

Yukhei fell silent, looking back up at his boyfriend. Jungwoo was trembling a little but he seemed firmed in his words, low talking coming from the phone. Part of him hadn't expected this, not in a mean way, just understanding Jungwoo's shyness. But part of him knew that Jungwoo had changed, and grown, and now he had the strength to defend the love of his life. 

Yukhei kept on listening, smiling even as he overheard one of Jungwoo's friends call Jungwoo a 'basic bitch' for dating a frat boy. He didn't care. Jungwoo had stood up for him; it didn't matter what anyone else thought of him. 

"You know what guys?" Jungwoo said, loudly and firmly, more strongly than Yukhei had ever heard. "You guys are not nice. Yukhei may not be what you guys think is nice but he is, way, way more than you guys. So, I don't need you guys. I just need nice people in my life. Don't call me again, okay? I don't wanna be friends." 

Jungwoo's friends didn't even have time to respond before he hung up on them and stomped back up to the art shack, surprised when he ran into Yukhei. Without question, they wrapped each other in their arms. 

"Did you hear everything?" Jungwoo mumbled into his chest. 

Yukhei nodded. "You didn't have to do that, you know." 

"I wanted to," Jungwoo answered. "I wanted to so bad. I love you and they are stupid. And I wanted them to know that." 

Yukhei tilted Jungwoo's chin up so they could lock eyes. "Baby, I love you too." He didn't think he had ever loved him more. 


	19. Camp Director's Blues

The upstairs office was a cluttered mess, and that meant Doyoung couldn't think. 

Doyoung had a problem, where his mind could only focus when his surroundings were in focus, meaning organized and clean. It just wasn't. 

How had it gotten like that? Well, day after day of him and Jaehyun running around, trying to make sure the campers don't accidentally get hurt, or worse, or run off the grounds or get their hands on illegal drugs, again, or do just about anything a normal elementary school student would do (whose idea was it to let five six and seven year olds sleep in cabins by themselves)? The camp itself too needed constant maintenance and the team could only do so much and there was a new thing popping up every day, a rusty spike stabbing a nine year old's arm, a microwave that almost exploded, a boulder rolling down from the ledge. Even the counselors needed constant maintenance: the new ones needed teaching on how to be functioning counselors, let alone human beings. The old ones still needed to be checked up on, just to make sure they were actually working and not sneaking off with their boyfriends. And even the most well behaved counselors still needed breaks.

So Doyoung and Jaehyun didn't have time to keep the office in check. But now that Doyoung needed to do administrative work (get the ice cream fridge in the store restocked, put Yangyang and Hendery on the payroll, email the mom of the kid who got stabbed by the rusty spike), he couldn't even begin because it was too much of a mess. 

In a style very unlike Doyoung, he flopped onto the floor of the office and groaned, fluttering papers around. Normally Doyoung was good with messes. But this was too much, far too much. 

There was a knock at the door and Doyoung groaned loudly. "I'm very busy; don't come in unless it's urgent," he answered from the floor. 

"Is seeing your boyfriend urgent?" Jaehyun answered, and Doyoung smiled. 

"Of course." The door pushed open and Jaehyun looked around, letting out a worried sigh when he saw Doyoung on the floor. 

"What happened?" Doyoung just groaned in reply and Jaehyun looked around. Doyoung could see in his eyes that he knew exactly what the problem was, of course he did, they'd been together so long at that point that they were basically psychic with each other. 

"I'll clean up the desk and you organize the papers on the floor," Jaehyun answered, cupping Doyoung's face and rubbing his cheek. 

Doyoung sat up and gave a reluctant smile, slowly making his way to the papers. 

"Why are you up here anyways? We were supposed to have some time off," Jaehyun said. 

"Camp's over in eleven days and Hendery and Yangyang still aren't on the payroll," Doyoung answered. "Plus the store is out of ice cream. And I'm worried enough about that kid's stab wound that I'm gonna email his mom." 

Jaehyun paused shuffling papers for a second. "Shit." 

"Shit is right," Doyoung said with a sigh, organizing them into stacks. 

"We haven't had much time lately though. With Jeno and Jaemin and all," Jaehyun said, his voice growing quieter. 

Doyoung hummed; for the past two days he and Jaehyun had to do shifts on lifeguard duty because Jeno and Jaemin refused to work with each other. It was even worse since they had shared a bed originally; now they had to take turns sleeping on the floor next to Hendery and that made them even more crabby. It had taken away the little time they usually had together, but it didn't matter when they were worried about their friends. 

"They need to talk to each other. But none of us should interfere, at least not yet. They need to figure it out for themselves." 

"Agreed," Jaehyun said firmly, turning on the ten year old windows computer. "But if they haven't at least discussed it by the last day of camp, we will all have to make them." 

"Perfect. They have ten days and I can't imagine they can go that long without speaking to each other." 

"That's true. I wonder what it's all about though." 

"It was the day they were supposed to..." Doyoung trailed off. 

"Oh. That's...that's not good." 

"Yeah." 

Jaehyun hummed as they fell silent for a moment. "Do you remember the first time we...?"

Doyoung chuckled at the thought. They had been so chaste all through high school and camp, planning for the first time to be in Doyoung's first year of college when Jaehyun was still a high school senior going to visit Doyoung. Well it turns out Doyoung's freshman year roommate had been quite the homebody (aka Doyoung never saw him leave the room once) so they had to do it in Jaehyun's car. So much for a perfect planned out first time. 

But it had been wonderful, nonetheless. 

"Of course I remember," Doyoung mumbled, a smile still on his lips.

"And...done!" Jaehyun cheered. 

"What?" 

"All the tasks are done. The ice cream is ordered, the kid's mom knows about the rusty stab wound, and Hendery and Yangyang are on the payroll." 

"Jaehyunnie, you didn't have to..." Doyoung whined, setting down the last of the paper stacks on the table and going over to wrap has arms around his boyfriend. 

"I did." Jaehyun swiveled around in the seat. "You...you've been so stressed out lately. I know how you worry, about the campers and their parents and if they'll come back next year and if there will even be enough enrollment to keep the place going next year." Doyoung let out a worried sigh at the thought. "And you worry about our friends, and if they're having fun, and if Chenle and Jisung and Jeno and Jaemin are doing the best things possible for their relationships. And our place for next year. Man, god do we need that," Jaehyun said with a chuckle and Doyoung smiled in agreement; they hadn't had any time for...themselves thus far at camp. "But you're worried if we can afford it, if we have time to get it and move in before classes start, if both of us will like it...you know I notice when you come up here at three am to search through craigslist, right?" 

Doyoung frowned, looking down. Jaehyun began to rub Doyoung's arms, very gently. 

"But...you remember our first time, right? We planned and planned and planned and then, we had to do it in the back of my high school car. But it was great! It was wonderful. That sure as hell wasn't perfect but we loved it. You know, everything's like that. Not everything has to be perfect. I don't think it would even be possible for this camp to be perfect; we would need about ten thousand more dollars for that. Our friends don't have to be perfect counselors and our place for next year doesn't have to be perfect either. But it's all so good! We've worked so hard and the camp is going so well. Our friends mess up sometimes but they're really putting their hearts into doing this. And as for the place...it'll come up. Doyoung, I just want you to have fun. This is our special place, you know? Don't taint it with the stress of the real world. Everything is going just fine. More than fine, actually. Far more than fine." 

Doyoung sighed, his eyes going watery for a second before he got control of himself. "Do you have any idea how much I love you?" Doyoung said, his voice scratchy. 

"Yes. Yes I do," Jaehyun said, pecking Doyoung's lips and standing up. "Now let's get out of this work chair and onto those couches to cuddle. I think we deserve it." 

"We sure do," Doyoung answered, smiling softly as Jaehyun laid down and wrapped Doyoung in his arms. They laid there in silence for a moment, just letting themselves be absorbed in the brief moment of peace they had. 

"Doyoung?" Jaehyun finally spoke, almost a whisper. 

"Yes?"

"Do you remember when we were young and you used to read your books to me?" Slowly, Doyoung smiled and nodded. "Can...can we do that again?" 

"Of course," Doyoung answered, getting up and looking through his major book collection (he was an english lit major after all) before pulling out a random title and leaning back against Jaehyun's chest. 

"The Hobbit?" Jaehyun spoke with surprise. "Isn't that too fun for an english major?" 

"In high school I thought I was cool for reading hard books," Doyoung answered. "I like to think I'm past that now."

Jaehyun chuckled and tilted Doyoung's chin up, the two sharing a deep kiss, and slowly, the ball of anxiety that seemed to have been stuck in Doyoung's chest since camp started began to dissipate. Not disappear, but dissipate. 

He opened the first page of the book, Jaehyun's soft breaths tickling his neck, and immediately he was transported back to those summers when he first fell in love, reading to Jaehyun when they were both practically babies. He smiled at the thought and continued reading. 


	20. Finally

It was after lunch and Jisung and Chenle were headed to the art shack, which wasn't at all unusual. What was unusual, however, is that they were followed by Taeyong, Ten, Renjun, Kun, Hendery, and Yangyang. 

Taeyong, Ten, and the kitchen staff had cornered Chenle and Jisung during breakfast that day, asking them if any other counselors had wanted to take their campers to the art shack that afternoon. When Chenle and Jisung answered no, those six boys insisted that they all hold a meeting in the art shack that afternoon. Even after pestering and pestering them what it was about, neither Chenle nor Jisung could convince them to reveal what it's about. 

The arrived and the six boys sat around the dirty, paint covered table, inviting Jisung and Chenle to join them. Hesitantly, they slid into the seats. 

"We have called this meeting because literally every single person at this camp, including the counselors, campers, and both of you are very fed up with you two," Renjun said. 

"Not in a bad way!" Taeyong countered. 

"What....what does that even mean?" Jisung asked. 

"We're tired of ourselves? And each other? What did we even do?" Chenle added. 

"Yes," Yangyang simply clarified. 

"It's not about what you have done. It's about what you haven't done," Kun explained. 

"Guys, stop being so cryptic," Jisung spoke with a sigh. 

Ten sighed back. "Well...you two have a secret that you're keeping from one other. And we think it's time you shared it." 

Jisung and Chenle immediately reddened and refused to look at one another. 

"Wh-what secret?" Jisung spoke with an awkward chuckle. 

"Y-yeah, we're best friends. We don't have any secrets from each other," Chenle added. 

Yangyang snorted and Hendery clamped a hand over his mouth. 

"That's bullshit and both of you know it," Ten said very calmly and Jisung tried to give him a secret death glare. 

"Literally everyone will be happy once you guys talk. You guys most of all," Taeyong added. 

"Everyone's so invested in this, you know? All the campers, all of the counselors..." Hendery trailed off. 

"So, we'll leave you two to it," Kun said, and the six boys started to stand up. 

After a moment of processing, Jisung stood up to chase after them. "Wait, what the fuck guys," he whined as they closed the door. But when he got to the door to open it...it was locked. 

Jisung gasped and turned to look at Chenle who was still frozen in shock. "They locked us in here," Jisung said. 

"No," Chenle mumbled, standing up and jiggling with the door, but that was it. It was shut tight. 

"Guys!" Chenle yelled. 

"We're not opening it until you share your secret," Ten answered. 

"What will Doyoung and Jaehyun have to say about this? That we can't do our job?" Jisung said loudly. 

"They're in on it," Yangyang smugly answered. 

Jisung and Chenle shared a defeated look. 

"I hate them," Jisung mumbled. 

"Me too," Chenle answered. They both sighed and looked at the floor. 

"I...I don't have a secret. I swear," Jisung said, and Chenle's heart wavered a little bit. 

"Me too," Chenle lied. 

Jisung sighed. "Well, what can we do?"

Chenle looked around the shack, anywhere but at Jisung's face. He knew it would hurt just to look at it. "I mean, I guess we could clean up. This place is in need of some organization." 

"You're right," Jisung answered. "That'll probably take a while, and then when we're done we can get them to let us out because they'll be bored of this." 

"True. Very true." 

The boys proceeded to get to work, the silence heavy. Silence was unusual between them, especially on Chenle's part, but now he just wanted and needed to think. 

He knew what his secret was. But did Jisung? Would those boys lie and say Jisung had a secret too, just to get Chenle to confess, when he actually didn't? This was mean, but he couldn't imagine his friends and pseudo parents being that cruel. 

But...what could Jisung's secret be? oh. It was probably whoever he said he was in love with when they played truth or dare four days ago. Chenle sighed. Did his friends really get him in here so he could confess to Jisung and be rejected? It was painful, but he could see the merit. If that happened Chenle would be hurt, but maybe he could finally get over his crush and be able to be friends, just friends, with Jisung. 

When he looked over at his best friend, his first love cleaning, he could see everything. He could see the way his shoulders sagged and how the quiet boy was even quieter than usual. Why would Jisung be upset? Why would he be nervous? Chenle couldn't figure it out. So he just sighed, and got back to work. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Two hours later, the art shack was spotless, even cleaner than when they first arrived. But sadly, that meant there was nothing more they could do. 

"What do we do now?" Jisung asked, sighing as he slumped in a chair. 

"Beg the boys for freedom, I guess," Chenle answered. 

The boys both went to the (also locked) window and started screaming the names of the other counselors, whichever popped into their heads first. 

Taeyong and Ten quickly rushed over wearing excited smiles. "Did you guys share your secrets?" 

Chenle and Jisung looked at each other nervously. "Um, yeah," Chenle lied. 

"Of course we did," Jisung added. Ten and Taeyong raised their eyebrows in a way that let Jisung and Chenle know they knew they were lying. 

"Then what's the secret?" Ten asked. 

Chenle and Jisung shared another glance. "Um, turns out we both do drugs!" Jisung came up with off of the top of his head. 

Ten and Taeyong sighed. "Um, during truth or dare Chenle didn't even recognize the weed Mark stole from his campers," Taeyong answered. 

"Plus we all know that's not the secret. We can't let you out yet, goodbye," Ten said, and he and Taeyong grabbed hands and walked away. 

"Wait!" Chenle cried. Only Taeyong turned back, giving them a shrug and a pitying glance. 

Slowly, Chenle got the courage to look at Jisung, and Jisung did too. They locked eyes and Chenle flushed. 

"Do you think they'll ever let us out? To eat? To sleep?" Jisung asked worriedly, and Chenle shook his head. 

"Not if Renjun is involved. And he is." 

Jisung sighed very deeply and averted his eyes. "If we're really stuck then..." he sighed again. "I guess I do have a secret. I really didn't want to tell you but...we're gonna have to go to the bathroom at some point." 

Chenle looked up at him in shock. "I...I do too." 

"You do?" Jisung asked hurriedly. 

"Yeah." 

"U-um, let's sit down then," Jisung answered and the two sat across from each other at the little kiddie table. Jisung immediately sat on his hands, the thing he always did when he was so nervous his hands were shaky, and that only made Chenle's heart beat harder in his own chest. He was so scared he could have cried. Was this going to ruin everything? Why was Jisung just as nervous as him? 

"U-um..." Jisung trailed off, trying to stall.

"Come on, let's get this over with," Chenle mumbled. 

Jisung sighed. "Okay who should go first?" he asked. 

"We should just say them at the same time," Chenle answered. 

"Good idea. One the count of three?" 

Chenle nodded.

"One, two, three, I like you. What?" Both of them said simoultaneously. 

All of the sudden, it felt like Chenle's world flipped upside down and from the look in Jisung's eyes, it was clear his had too. 

"Oh my god," Chenle said breathlessly, his voice shaking. 

"I didn't think...I really didn't think...." 

"Me either," Chenle answered. 

"How long?" Jisung asked. 

"First day, second year of camp. Ever since then," Chenle explained. "You?" 

"Um...it was during truth or dare during the second year of camp, when you kissed me on the cheek...do you remember that?" 

"Of course," Chenle said. "Of course." 

"We've...we've liked each other for that long? Five years?" 

Chenle for the first time that day slowly started to smile. "I...I guess we have." 

Jisung slowly smiled too and Chenle thought his heart would burst. They both started giggling. "Of course everyone else was fed up! This has been going on for five years!" 

"I just...I just can't believe it. I...Didn't you like Kun?" 

"Kun? Why would you think that? I never liked Kun," Chenle answered incredulously. 

"You told me! You told me you liked him the second year of camp." 

Chenle's jaw dropped. "I have no memory of that." 

"Then why did you say it?" 

"I must have said it because I didn't want you to know I liked you!" Chenle answered. "And what about this year? Why did you say you've been in love before?" 

"Because I'm in love with you Chenle," Jisung said seriously, looking at the ground. 

Chenle took in a large breath. Those were the words he had wanted to hear since he was twelve years old but never thought he would actually hear. But now, he was, straight out of Jisung's mouth, and it was magic. 

"I'm in love with you too," Chenle answered, barely above a whisper. They looked each other in the eyes, both of them slowly smiling again. 

"Can I...can I touch you?" Jisung asked hesitantly. 

"Please," Chenle breathed out and Jisung just cupped his cheek, rubbing in circles and Chenle felt like he was going to melt into a puddle of lovey dovey goo. 

"What happens now?" Jisung asked, Chenle grabbing Jisung's free hand in his own. 

"Do we...date? Should we be a couple?" Chenle asked. Chenle could see the hesitance in Jisung's eyes, and he knew it was in his own. Despite how strongly they loved each other their friendship meant far more to both of them. 

"What if we ruin everything?" Jisung whispered, and Chenle shared that very same fear, that a relationship could ruin the friendship they had and needed to keep so badly. 

But Chenle didn't want to stay just friends. He wanted this, Jisung cupping his cheek and holding his hand and being loved by him in the full capacity that either of them could. "See...Jisung, if this was a recent thing I would say that we shouldn't do this. But it's been five years. Five years of liking each other and those feelings never faded, for etiher of us. We've liked each other almost as long as we've known each other. So...it's probably destiny, you know? Being together is probably what we're meant to do." 

Jisung smiled at that and he knew immediately that that was what Jisung wanted to hear too. "And you know, almost all of our friends have lasted. Nobody's broken up permanently. I think relationships made here at Camp Purple are meant to last." 

"Me too," Chenle mumbled. Jisung and Chenle looked at each other, eyes darting between lips and lashes. 

"You know, I've never kissed anyone outside of truth or dare," Jisung admitted. 

"Me either," Chenle answered. "I...I want to kiss you so bad. I've wanted to kiss you so bad." 

"Then we should do it," Jisung answered, and slowly leaning in, the two pressed their lips together. And immediately, they knew everything was right. 

Keeping it simple and chaste and loving they slowly pulled away and Chenle looked up to see Jisung's eyes wet. 

"Jisung, are you cr-" 

Jisung interrupted Chenle with another, deeper kiss and Chenle forgot immediately, the two in their own world until their friend's voice pulled them out of it. 

"Oh my god they did it!" Yukhei cried. Chenle and Jisung turned their heads to see him staring at them excitedly through the window. Slowly, everyone else gathered around and cheered. 

"Yay, great, we're boyfriends now, but caN YOU PLEASE LET US OUT OF HERE?" Chenle cried, and Jisung buried his head in Chenle's shoulder. Things could not have been better. 


	21. Kitchen Beat

It was a normal morning where Yangyang, Hendery, Renjun, and Kun were all busy preparing the morning breakfast. As... strange as Hendery and Yangyang were, they were definitely a big help in the kitchen. No longer were Renjun and Kun running around, sweating and stressing over breakfast. Now they were running around, sweating and stressing over making sure Hendery and Yangyang did their job correctly. But there was a lot less of the bad stuff. Honestly, nothing about his job was all that bad. 

"Hey guys, we have a delivery coming this morning," Renjun announced, the rest of Kun's kitchen coworkers giving him a smirk. Wait. There was one part of Kun's job that was all that bad. 

"Dude, how are you blushing already?" Yangyang teased, and Kun did not hesitate to wack him with a dishrag. "You know, you can't forget that dare Yukhei gave you last time we played." 

Kun couldn't hold back his loud groan of defeat as Yangyang, Hendery, and Renjun all giggled around him. Five days ago Yukhei had dared Kun to tell Xiaojun he thought his eyebrows were sexy. Which was definitely true, they were the sexiest goddamn eyebrows Kun had ever seen in his entire life, but he really didn't want to admit that to Xiaojun. But clearly, he was going to have to. Xiaojun hadn't been over to camp since that dare, and since it had been a few days Kun was hoping they would forget. But of course they wouldn't. Of course. 

At that moment the cursed guy walked in through the doors of the kitchen, heaving slightly and setting down a box full of lettuce. "Hey boys," he said, smiling at all of them. "It's been a while." 

Immediately, Kun made a beeline for the other side of the kitchen, getting to work on breakfast. He absolutely did not want to tell the cutest, sexiest, funniest, most interesting guy he had ever seen in his life that his eyebrows were sexy. No no no. 

"Where's Kun?" he overheard Xiaojun ask. 

Suddenly, Renjun walked over and kicked him in the shins. "If you don't do your dare we'll do it for you," he whispered in his ear. A cold shiver went down Kun's spine; he did not want to know how they would 'do his dare for him'. Plus Renjun was terrifying. 

Kun edged ever so slightly closer to Xiaojun but still on the other side of the room from him and Xiaojun set down another box, Yangyang going to help him. When he came back, Yangyang was not carrying a box but he and Xiaojun were chatting. 

"He's avoiding you because..." Yangyang started saying until Kun shot a death glare at him. Then Yangyang started giggling. "Nothing." 

"Nothing?" Xiaojun asked. 

"Yangyang come help me!" Kun yelled and Yangyang trodded over. Before Yangyang could say anything Kun set him to work on setting out the maple syrup so he could listen in to what was going on. 

"I'll help you with the boxes!" Hendery volunteered. 

"What's his problem?" Xiaojun heard Hendery whisper, turning slightly so he could see Xiaojun was pointing to Yangyang and not himself. "He couldn't even lift one of the boxes." 

"He's really rich," Hendery answered, as if that explained anything. But Xiaojun accepted that answer, the two going back and forth to the truck. 

Kun just stayed in the corner frying up the waffles, only growing more and more anxious as time went on. He wasn't sure what any of this meant anyways. Was this a game for Xiaojun? Was he actually flirting? Honestly, Kun had no clue. 

"Finally, all done," Kun heard Hendery sigh as he and Xiaojun put down the last of the boxes. But he couldn't hear Xiaojun making any move to leave. 

"What's wrong?" Xiaojun's voice suddenly spoke, right next to him. Kun jumped back in shock; Yangyang was standing right where Xiaojun was just a second ago. Kun looked around to see Renjun, Hendery, and Yangyang giggling and staring at the two of them, and Kun gave them a deadpan look before turning back to Xiaojun. "Cat got your tongue?" the delivery boy asked.

He was somehow even more attractive than he'd been the last time he saw him less than a week ago. Waiting for Kun's response, he gave him a little eyebrow wiggle. Kun thought he was going to pass out. Honestly he kind of wanted to pass out. But was punishment from Renjun worse than just going through with the dare?

Yes, yes it was. So Kun cleared his throat. 

"Kun, your knees are literally shaking-" 

Kun coughed loudly so Renjun would shut the fuck up and turned to Xiaojun. "Um...um...um...your eyebrows are sexy!" Kun cried. 

"Wh-what?" Xiaojun answered, looking ninety percent confused and ten percent amused. 

"They're...they're sexy," Kun mumbled before promptly dashing out of the kitchen's back door. 

Everyone was frozen in the kitchen for a moment, just as Doyoung and Jaehyun walked down the stairs from their office into the kitchen. 

"Guys, what the hell is going on down here?" Doyoung cried. "We heard a loud commotion and lots of giggling and now everyone looks so..." 

"Also, where is Kun?" Jaehyun added. 

"He just told me that my eyebrows were sexy and then ran off," Xiaojun explained. Immediately everyone else including Doyoung and Jaehyun started laughing, and hard. "Did you guys put him up to that?" Xiaojun asked. 

"Kind of?" Yangyang explained through his laughter. "We were playing truth or dare and he got dared to tell you that." 

"But you know he meant it," Renjun added. 

Xiaojun sighed softly. "I do know. I do. God it was nice to hear him say it out loud." 

"Anyways..." Doyoung trailed off with a last laugh and a quick cough. "Anything we can help you with?" 

"Nope! Everything's good. I guess I'll be taking my leave then. Tell Kun I said goodbye and that I waggled by eyebrows." 

Everyone laughed. "Will do," Renjun answered. 

"I'm not sure if he could handle that," Hendery mumbled, and Xiaojun headed out of the kitchen. When they heard the sound of his truck leaving the camp parking lot, they all turned back to each other. 

"Will you guys make Kun come back? Breakfast still isn't ready and we kinda need his help," Renjun said. 

Jaehyun hummed. "I think we should give him a moment. That was probably quite humiliating. Plus, you all know him. He's way too anal retentive not to work when he should be." 

"I'm with Jaehyun; give him a minute," Doyoung added. The other kitchen staff hummed in agreement. 

"Alright guys, I have to head out," Jaehyun said. Just then the other boys noticed him wearing his swim trunks. 

"Where are you going?" Hendery asked in confusion. 

Jaehyun sighed. "To the pool. Jeno and Jaemin still won't work together." Renjun, Hendery, and Yangyang gasped. 

"They told me they were fighting but wouldn't explain why. I had no idea it was this bad..." Renjun mumbled. 

"It's Jaehyun and Jaemin's turn today. We switch off," Doyoung explained. 

"That's not good. How long has this been going on?" Yangyang asked. 

"Four days," Doyoung answered with a grimace. They all gasped again. 

"You know, I could tell. Their vibes were off. They're not on the same wavelength anymore," Hendery said. 

"Do you know any hippie dippy shit that could fix their problem?" Yangyang asked. 

"My friends stole my crystals when we tripped," Hendery grumbled, and everyone else tried hard not to left. "I think they'll just have to talk this one out." 

Jaehyun sighed. "Well, I should get going." 

"Why don't I walk you over to the pool?" Doyoung suggested. At that Jaehyun smiled and grabbed his hand. 

"I'd love that." 

"Good luck boys. Be gentle with Kun now," Doyoung said. 

"Will do," Hendery answered. 

"Will try," Renjun and Yangyang added simoultaneously. 

Doyoung and Jaehyun chuckled and headed out of the kitchen, walking down the path in the early morning light down to the pool. 

"I can't believe Jeno and Jaemin didn't even tell Renjun what's wrong," Jaehyun whispered, so none of the campers or counselors would overhear. 

"I know," Doyoung whispered back. "Renjun's both of their best friend." 

They both squeezed each other's hands, trying to appreciate the fresh morning breeze and the time alone together, something they didn't often have. But in the back of their minds was always this worry for their much younger friends; nobody wanted them to ruin something they had spent so much time and love on. 

But when they were close to the pool Jaehyun spun Doyoung around in his arms, facing towards him so they could share a quick kiss. The giggled into each other's mouths before turning around to see Jaemin, watching them share a loving kiss with so much heartbreak in his eyes that it almost hurt. 

"Good morning!" Jaehyun said, giving Doyoung another kiss on the cheek before going over to the pool. 

"Morning," Jaemin answered, managing to muster a fake smile on his face. 


	22. Store Breakdown

It was a typical morning for Taeil: wake up, eat breakfast with the others, then make his way down to the store alone. Unlock the door, turn on all the lights, double check to make sure everything was working and nobody had stolen anything, take the register out of the safe, then wait for the children to come and spend all day bothering him (which he didn't mind, but they didn't need to know that). 

Only, today was different. As soon as he unlocked the door the pervasive smell of ice cream, maybe even bad ice cream, filled the small cabin. Gasping, Taeil quickly flicked the lights on and ran to the ice cream fridge. The lights were off and when he pulled out a bag for an ice cream bar, it was like liquid inside. The fridges were broken. 

As Taeil sighed deeply he checked all of the other fridges in the room he realized all of them were off. The electricity must have broken some time after he closed the place down. Fuck. Doyoung was definitely going to have a heart attack. 

Sighing, Taeil reached for his walkie talkie. "Hey guys," he said defeatedly. "Bad news down at the store." 

"Oh fuck," Ten answered. 

"What is it?" Jaehyun said and Taeil could hear the nervousness in his voice. 

"The fridges are broken." 

"All of them?" Doyoung cried. 

"All of them." 

There was a long silence before anyone spoke. "Taeyong, Ten, get down there. Yuta, you can stay trying to fix the rusty spike," Doyoung ordered. 

"I'll be there in a second. Don't worry about it Doyoung; you just stay down at the pool," Jaehyun added. 

Soon enough Jaehyun, Taeyong, and Ten had arrived at the store, grimacing at the liquidated ice cream. 

"Let's get all of the refridgerated stuff out of here," Jaehyun said. So the four of them spent their whole morning doing that, up until lunch when they finally got a break. While they were eating, Jaehyun and Doyoung pulled the three of them aside. 

"Alright, Taeyong and Ten, you guys should go figure out what's going on." Doyoung said and the couple nodded seriously. "I'll finish my shift on lifeguard duty, and Jaehyun and Jaemin will get the ice cream organized for restock, since he's not working at all," he added with a little glare in Jaemin's direction.

"What about me?" Taeil asked. 

"Oh. Well, we figured you could do what you want. Since you're the only store person you're always stuck there after all," Jaehyun explained. 

Slowly, Taeil grinned. "That sounds awesome." 

So after lunch when Johnny was organizing his campers to leave, Taeil bounded over to him and back hugged him with a big smile. 

"Whatcha doing darling?" Johnny asked, grinning back at his boyfriend. "I heard about the store. Are you okay?" He asked, switching to a more serious voice. 

Taeil giggled. "I'm fine. They gave me the rest of the day off to fix the store though, so I came to help you." 

"Really? Are you sure you just don't wanna relax?" 

"What's the point in relaxing if I can't do it with you?" Taeil responded, and Johnny smiled at him, grabbing his hand. 

"Ooh Johnny's with his boyfriend!" One of Johnny's campers teased as soon as they left the dining hall. 

"What is the store guy doing here?" Another asked. 

"Well the store is broken so Taeil came here to help us!" Johnny cheerfully explained. 

"He's not here to help, you guys are just going to make out," one said. 

Both Taeil and Johnny scoffed. "What makes you think that?" Johnny asked incredulously. 

"The teenagers said that their counselors made out during the movie thingie," another answered. 

"Well...um...the two of us are a little bit older than counselor Mark and counselor Donghyuck so...well, we don't really do that. In front of children," Taeil answered. 

"I'm not a child I'm twelve!" One of the campers responded. 

"So what you're saying is that you guys are lame," another teased. 

"We- we are not lame. We're very cool," Johnny answered.

"I disagree. I think you two are lame-os," a camper said. 

Johnny and Taeil sighed and rolled their eyes. "Do you guys go to parties in college? Go clubbing?" one of them asked. 

"That's not really our thing," Taeil explained. 

"Then what do you do?" a camper asked. 

"We, um...we play with our cats," Johnny sheepishly explained. 

"Then you guys are lame!" A ten year old cried, then all of Johnny's campers spoke up in agreement. 

"Hey!" Johnny spoke, loudly and sternly, then cleared his throat. "Anyways, guys, come gather around and I'll explain what we're doing today." The kids all chuckled under their breaths and circled around the very tall counselor, while Taeil leaned in his shoulder. "So in this bucket are...drum roll please...water balloons! But but but!" He said sternly when the kids started reaching for them. "We have to go over the rules. Can anyone think of one?" 

"Don't hit anyone in the penis on purpose," one of the campers suggested. Johnny and Taeil shared a look and Taeil had to clamp a hand over his mouth to keep from laughing. 

"Yes, yes, that's definitely true. Don't forget other sensitive places-" 

"Like the balls!" Another twelve year old cried out. 

"Yes, those, but also the face and neck and butt. So don't hit there." The campers giggled when Johnny said 'butt' and Taeil and Johnny shared yet another look. 

"Also, if someone says time out then don't hit them. But if you're on time out you can't hit anyone else," Taeil added, coming up with that off the top of his head. 

"Great guys, let's get started. Ready, set, go!" Johnny yelled, all of the campers immediately rushing for the balloons. 

But instead of pelting each other, the counselors were immediately covered in water: every single one of the campers hit them. Shocked and drenched, the boys stared at the giggling campers before Taeil grabbed his own balloon out of the bucket. 

"Oh, it's on." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Okay, but what is up with this damn camp? Why does literally nothing work?" Ten grumbled as he and Ten stood by the wiring of the store fridges, desperately trying to make them work. 

"I'm sure this stuff hasn't even been looked at since it was put in place," Taeyong answered. 

Ten sighed. "True. This fridge is literally from the late seventies." 

Ten and Taeyong sighed, going back to work. 

"At least the store is cool. Poor Yuta's working outside in the hot sun." 

"Yeah," Ten answered, twisting a wire back into place and hearing a tiny jolt of electricity. 

"Oh!" Taeyong cried excitedly, and he and Ten shared a smile. 

Ten giggled and set to work resetting all the little lines of wiring. 

"You know, this job isn't so bad." Taeyong said softly

"Fixing the fridges you mean? I agree. This is kinda satisfying," Ten answered. 

"No, I mean, yeah, but I mean like...the whole job. Being the maintenance people." 

Slowly, Ten nodded. "Yeah, it's kinda nice." 

"I mean, there's always a shortage of maintenance people like this...plumbers, electricians...we could always get jobs in that industry. We already have experience." 

Ten laughed. "Look at us. Who would have thought, the two worst students in our respective high schoolers, who ditched college to go travel like bums, would get stable, respectable jobs?" 

Taeyong giggled at that. "True," he mumbled. 

"But you're right," Ten spoke, more seriously. "It might be nice." 

"I mean...not yet, we're still too young. We've got a couple years of partying left in us. But...soon." 

Ten smiled back at him just as the fridge lights came back on. "Soon." 

"Yay!" Taeyong cried, hugging his husband tightly despite the dirt and sweat. 

Ten suddenly turned to him. "Wait, what do you mean by soon?" 

They were both silent for a moment, looking into each other's eyes. Even when they had first started dating they had always been so in sync, knowing everything the other was feeling without any words spoken. And with time, their connection had only gotten stronger and they were somehow even better attuned to each other. So Ten quickly knew what Taeyong was thinking. Why he said soon. 

"Taeyong," Ten whined. "Are you really thinking that?" 

"I-I mean..." 

"We're too young for kids!" Ten cried. "You're only twenty-one, and I'm only twenty." Taeyong didn't move or say anything else, and Ten quickly sighed. "Fuck you're right. I do want kids soon too." 

"Well, like, we're already married..." Taeyong said softly. 

Ten sighed. "True, true. Plus we kind of sort of raised Chenle and Jisung already..." 

Wordlessly, Taeyong hugged Ten tightly, and slowly Ten hugged back. "Not right after camp though. No way." 

Taeyong giggled. "Of course not! We need money first. We're way too broke." 

"We are. We really are." They both chuckled, still holding each other. "Boy or girl?" Ten practically whispered. 

"Boy," Taeyong answered without hesitation. 

"How are you so sure?" Ten asked, pulling back to look over Taeyong's face. 

"So we can send him here, of course." 


	23. Heartache Over

It had been almost a week. Almost a week of not speaking a word to each other, not going near each other even to work, and Jeno was the most exhausted he had ever been. Everything hurt. Physically, mentally, his whole body and mind hurt. 

It was his day off from doing lifeguard duty, Jaehyun taking his place, so he was taking the opportunity to lay down in the cabin. That's all he'd been wanting to do ever since he and Jaemin had fought. 

Laying in bed, he wished he could just nap but his mind was in too much turmoil to let him sleep. So he laid there, staring at the door, wishing something would relieve him from the aching in his heart. 

As soon as he heard the door start to crack open Jeno shut his eyes, pretending to sleep. His cabinmates would probably just leave him alone if he pretended he was asleep and that was all he wanted. 

"Jeno," a soft, low voice sounded, and Jeno's heart did flips in his chest at the sound. He blinked his eyes open to Jaemin looking just as dead as he felt. 

Love for Jaemin began to overwhelm Jeno simply at just the sight of him. Something in Jeno's heart told him he couldn't let this go on any longer. "Jaemin, I-I know we're both angry," he choked out. "B-but we can't throw away five years of love on just one fight. We just can't." 

Jaemin paused for a long time. "I agree," he answered, and Jeno breathed out a sigh of relief. "Can I sit next to you?" 

Jeno nodded and sat up, making space for Jaemin. Jeno watched Jaemin pull a small, ruffled and crumpled up piece of paper. Looking over, Jeno could tell how much time he had spent on this paper. 

"I planned an apology because I...I wanted to say it right. And didn't wanna forget anything." 

Jeno's heart healed and broke all at once at that. But all Jeno could do is nod at him and watch him read the letter with his trembling fingers. 

"Jeno, baby, my love, 

I'm sorry. I am so so sorry. I can't believe I got that angry with you. I was angry but I should never have talked to you like that. My worst fear is you thinking I got angry because you didn't wanna do it with me because that's absolutely not it at all. I would never want to have sex if you didn't want to. Ever. Even if you were just a little bit doubtful I wouldn't want to do it. I should have realized so much sooner how you felt. As soon as we came to camp I should have called the whole thing off. Deep inside I knew but...but...I dunno." Jaemin's shaking got worse and Jeno saw the tears begin to well up in his eyes. "I love you so much. I love you so, so much," he choked out. "Even if you never wanna have sex it's okay. It's really okay. I love you for every reason possible except that. What I mean is my love for you does not include sex stuff. I dunno if that makes sense..." he sighed and tears began to fall onto his cheeks. Quickly, Jeno wiped them up with his fingers. "I just hope I didn't ruin everything," he sobbed. 

As soon as Jeno wiped all of Jaemin's tears away he held him tight in his arms. "You didn't ruin everything. You didn't," Jeno mumbled. Jaemin looked at him hopefully, eyes still soft and wet. "It took me a while to come to terms with what you said. I understood but I didn't want to think about it, you know? I...I should have trusted you. I should have trusted you to understand how I felt. I just didn't want to disappoint you but...lying about how I felt is much, much worse than disappointing you. I get that now. I love you, I love you so so much too. All I want is to just make you happy forever. Really, these days have been so terrible because I haven't been able to talk to you and I know how unhappy you've been, and that's just the opposite of what I want." 

Jaemin sighed deeply. "I'm sorry, I-I should have approached you to talk earlier. I just didn't wanna talk to you before because I wanted to find the best way to apologize." 

"God you're so sweet," Jeno mumbled into Jaemin's shoulder while they tightly held on to each other. "But don't be sorry. I stayed away too. I needed time to make sense of everything that happened. I...I'm not ready now. I can admit that to you now. I think that might change? But I really don't know. But what I do know is that I want to be with you forever." 

"That's all I want too," Jaemin choked out. "I just hope you know that that doesn't disappoint me, at all. I'm not disappointed." 

"But...but weren't you looking forward to it a lot?" 

"I was looking forward to getting closer to you in a way we were both excited for. But you not being excited for it makes me not want it at all." 

"But the..." Jeno blushed thinking about it. "Other part?" 

Jaemin gave Jeno his first smile in days. "That's what my right hand is for." 

At that, Jeno couldn't help but laugh out loud, and relief washed over him. Finally, things could go back to normal. Even better than normal in fact; they could have a more grown up relationship without the pressure of all of that. It gave Jeno more peace in his and Jaemin's relationship than he had felt in years, at that point. He knew now that Jaemin was not disappointed. He could never be disappointed. And it just reaffirmed the knowledge Jeno had always had, that Jaemin truly loved him for who he was on the inside, just like the way Jeno felt for Jaemin. 

"Are you mine again?" Jaemin mumbled shyly, like he was afraid any wrong move would take Jeno away from him. 

"Baby, we just fought. I've always been yours, and you mine," Jeno quietly answered. 

"Is it...is it okay if I kiss you?" Jaemin asked, genuinely curious, and Jeno's heart thumped at Jaemin's caution. 

"Of course. But wait," Jeno interrupted, stopping Jaemin who was already leaning in closer. "I just wanna say that everything we've done so far has been fine. Nothing we already did in the past made me uncomfortable." 

"So kissing is fine?" Jaemin asked, and Jeno nodded. 

"Making out too. Holding each other's waists. Even sharing the same bed. I like it all a lot," Jeno explained. 

Jaemin grinned at that and cupped Jeno's cheek, leaning in slowly. Their eyes fluttered shut and lips were on lips, no more nervousness or expectation behind them, and Jeno felt the last of the weight in his stomach dissipate. Things were better than before, so much better. 

"I just wanna say," Jaemin mumbled, looking down at his lap as he and Jeno pulled away from the kiss. "I'm sorry if I ever even made you slightly uncomfortable. I'm sorry if I pressured you. I'm sorry." 

"Jaemin," Jeno breathed out. "This isn't your fault at all. I never wanted you to know how I felt about all of this. I know if you had any idea that I didn't want to you would have stopped bringing it up immediately. I did my absolute best lying job, as wrong as it was. It's just...it's just not your fault. Please don't blame yourself for all of this. You never did that. You're all good." 

Jaemin smiled slightly. "Do you promise?" he whined. 

Jeno held his hands tightly. "I promise." 

"Jaemin, where the hell are you? I know you and Jeno are in a bad place but we are severely understaffed and we need you guys to work sometimes!" Doyoung yelled very loudly, slamming open the door to Jeno and Jaemin and the rest's cabin. He froze when he saw Jeno and Jaemin smiling for the first time in a week, at each other too, sitting on the same bed and holding hands. "Oh," he spoke. "You guys made up." 

"Yeah," Jeno admitted proudly. 

"Sorry we've been skirting our work," Jaemin said and he and Jeno shared a sheepish chuckle. 

"It's okay. It was more important you two made up," Doyoung softly answered. 

"Well, we won't skirt our work any longer," Jeno said firmly, standing up. 

"Yeah," Jaemin added, standing up as well. 

"We'll go be lifeguards right now," Jeno spoke. 

"Together?" Doyoung questioned. 

"Together," Jaemin answered. 

"Finally!" Doyoung groaned, grabbing the walkie talkie. "Jaehyun you're finally off life guard duty! They made up!" 

"YES!" Jaehyun screamed way too loudly and Jaemin and Jeno chuckled. 

"Meet me in the office as soon as the boys arrive?" Doyoung said. 

"Oh yeah," Jaehyun answered, and Jeno and Jaemin shared an uncomfortable look. 

"Oh," Doyoung spoke, pink dusting his cheeks as he remembered Jeno and Jaemin were still in the room with him. "Get a move on you two." 

Jeno and Jaemin giggled. "We will." 


	24. The Final Truth or Dare

It was less than a week before camp ended, and the boys wanted to close out their session with a bang before they all became to busy with packing things up and saying their goodbyes. So, of course they decided to play truth or dare.

All the staff and Xiaojun (Renjun secretly invited him, to Kun's chagrin) sat around in the dining hall. 

"I'll start," Jaemin said with a smile on his face, finally back to his normal self. "Mark, truth or dare?" 

"We have to start with a dare." 

"Okay." Jaemin snorted to himself just thinking about the dare. "I dare you to make out with your boyfriend and at some point, grab his nose." 

Mark gave him a look. "Wait, what?" 

"You heard what I said," Jaemin firmly answered.

"You're a weirdo," Mark mumbled, shaking his head and turning to Donghyuck. The two of them shared a brief chuckle before leaning in. Of course it was nice at first; they had been together so damn long at that point that they knew exactly how to kiss each other in the best way possible. It was easy, but not too easy to the point where it became boring. 

But the dare did have to happen. So suddenly, Mark grabbed Donghyuck's nose. 

Donghyuck let out a feminine squeak, quickly pulling away from the kiss to rub his nose. "That was...odd." Everyone else began to giggle at the pair, including Donghyuck, and Mark just rolled her eyes. 

"Jaemin, that was actually pretty funny," Donghyuck coallesced.

Mark cleared his throat. "Anyways...Donghyuck, truth or dare?" 

"Me?" Donghyuck asked, and Mark nodded. "Um...truth." 

Mark whined. "I was gonna dare you to kiss me! Ugh, fine. Tell me what's your favorite thing about me." 

"Everything," Donghyuck said firmly. "Literally everything." Mark chuckled and blushed, staring at his lap as Donghyuck kissed his cheek and everyone else cooed. "Alright, Jungwoo, truth or dare?" 

"I pick truth too," Jungwoo spoke in his quiet voice, Yukhei's big arm thrown over his shoulder. 

"Hm, who do you think is getting married next." 

"Either Johnny and Taeil or Doyoung and Jaehyun. Doyoung and Jaehyun have...responsible energy, but Johnny and Taeil are the oldest." 

"Makes sense," Donghyuck mumbled, and everyone else nodded in agreement. 

"Okay! Johnny, truth or dare." 

"Dare," Johnny answered with a confident smile. 

Jungwoo giggled. "Bite Taeil's neck like a vampire." 

"Really?" Taeil whined as Johnny laughed and without pause bit his neck. Once Johnny was done they both shared a laugh and Taeil rubbed his neck. 

"Well that was weird," Taeil said. 

"Agreed. Now..." Johnny looked around the circle for who to ask next. "Ooh! Xiaojun, truth or dare?" 

Xiaojun looked slightly frightened. "Uh...truth." 

"Who do you think is the hottest person in this room?" 

Immediately, Xiaojun's shoulders sagged with relief and the confidence returned to his eyes. "Oh, Kun, for sure. He's so hot." 

Kun turned bright red and stared down at his lap. 

"Aren't you gonna answer him?" Hendery whispered in his ear. 

"Absolutely not," Kun responded. He looked up very briefly to see Xiaojun wiggle those damn eyebrows at him, and his eyes immediately returned to his lap. 

"Anyways..." Xiaojun mumbled with a smirk in Kun's direction, scanning the room and pointing to Chenle. "Um, you? Truth or dare?" 

"I'm Chenle," he introduced. "And I pick truth." Truths were easy now that he and Jisung were dating. 

"Okay Chenle...so like, almost everyone I've met at this camp is dating someone that they met here? So, are you dating another counselor too?" 

"Yes!" Chenle said, so proudly. "This is my boyfriend Jisung," he said, gesturing to the boy burying his neck in Chenle's shoulder on his right. "We just got together though, even though we liked each other for five years." 

"Five years?" Xiaojun cried. 

"Yup," Jisung answered shyly. 

"There's something about this camp, let me just tell you," Johnny said to Xiaojun. 

"Interesting..." Xiaojun answered. 

"My turn!" Chenle cheered. "Ten, truth or dare?" 

"You know what? I'm gonna say truth too." 

"So...you and Taeyong eloped. You know what's next? Kids. When are those? You know, Jisung and I want some siblings," Chenle teased, reminding them all of back when they were little and Taeyong and Ten were their camp parents. 

Taeyong and Ten shared a giggle. "I think we still have a couple of partying years left, and we're broke as hell...but soon," Ten admitted. 

Immediately, everyone screamed with excitement, and Taeyong and Ten just laughed. 

"Alright, alright," Ten spoke. "Kun, truth or dare?" 

Cold fear ran down his spine. "Truth," he said shakily. 

"Now who do you think is the cutest person in the room?" he asked teasingly. He knew exactly who Kun thought was the cutest person in the room. In fact, literally everyone in that room including Xiaojun knew who Kun thought was the cutest person in the room. Ten, master of cruelty, just wanted him to say it out loud. 

Kun put his face in his palm and groaned. "It's Xiaojun, of course." 

"Wait, who? I didn't quite catch that," Xiaojun teased. 

"You!" Kun growled, but it came out like more of a whine. Everyone chuckled and Kun shook his head at them, cheeks pink. "I hate all of you. Anyways...Yukhei, truth or dare?" 

"Dare!" Yukhei said excitedly. 

"Hmm... since school is starting up again soon... you should give Jungwoo a hickey. Just so everyone knows you two are back together." 

"Really?" Jungwoo whined. 

"That's so high school," Yukhei groaned, but he nuzzled Jungwoo's neck anyways. Yukhei gave him a hickey in just about seconds flat and everyone was grimacing. 

"I think we all hated that," Doyoung said. 

"I regret giving that dare," Kun added. 

"Okay then," Yukhei spoke while Jungwoo rubbed his neck. "Yangyang, truth or dare?" 

"I pick dare," he spoke confidently. 

Yukhei smirked. "I dare you to take the trash out of the cabins." 

Yangyang's jaw dropped. "Wait, what?" 

"There are trash cans outside of all of the cabins. I dare you to collect them and throw them in the dump behind the dining hall." 

Yangyang started shaking and the maintenance crew chuckled (that was technically their job after all). "But I've...I've never taken out trash before." 

"I know you can do it," Yukhei teased. Slowly, Yangyang stood up, his shoulders hunched, and made his way out of the dining hall. 

Ten minutes later Yangyang returned, clearly shaken up. 

"Dude, what happened?" Ten asked. 

"That was disgusting. Horrifying. Worst thing I've ever done in my life." 

"...where did you think trash went before?" Jeno asked. 

"I don't know!" Yangyang cried. "My trash in my room would be full, then the maid would come, then it wouldn't be," he explained as everyone snorted at him.

"Dude, you're embarrassing yourself. Just go." Hendery mumbled. 

"Fine," Yangyang roughly answered. "Jaehyun, truth or dare?" 

"Truth, I don't wanna take the damn trash out." 

"Hm...what's your secret kink?"

Doyoung and Jaehyun shared a look and blushed. 

"Um...well..." Jaehyun started. "Let's just say Doyoung and I would leave the curtains open in the dorm when we..." 

"Woah, that is...way crazier than I thought it would be," Johnny said. Jaehyun and Doyoung blushed even harder and tried to hide a little. 

"Poor people who could see into that window," Renjun mumbled. 

"I dunno, I would say they're lucky," Donghyuck answered. 

"Alright, time to change the subject," Jaehyun spoke. "Jisung, truth or dare?" 

"Truth, I guess," Jisung hesitantly answered. 

"What's the best part about being with Chenle?" 

"Agh, there are so many things. But I am definitely glad that the pining is finally over!" Jisung said happily, he and Chenle smiling at each other and holding hands. Everyone cooed and awwed over the teenage couple, and Jisung flushed and looked around. 

"Renjun, truth or dare?" 

"I'm scared, but I'll pick dare." 

Jisung chuckled. "I dare you to prank call your girlfriend." 

Renjun sighed and rolled his eyes but smiled, pulling out his cell phone. The other boys watched him type in her number and press star sixty-nine, then hit call. 

After a few rings, she picked up. "Hello?" 

"May I please speak to Seymore Butts?" Renjun said, putting on a fake deep voice. 

There was a long pause. "Renjun is that you?" 

Immediately all of the boys burst into laughter. "Sorry!" Renjun whined, and everyone continued laughing. 

"Truth or dare?" She asked. 

"Yeah," he mumbled. 

"Alright, I'll let you all get back to it. Oh and Injunnie? I think you're the worst prank caller ever." 

The boys all continued laughing and Renjun rolled his eyes. "Thanks for embarrassing me in front of my friends." 

"I love you, isn't that my job?" 

"I love you too," Renjun groaned. 

"Alright, see you soon." 

"See ya," Renjun answered and hung up. 

"She was right that was a bad one!" Jisung cried, and Renjun rolled his eyes. 

He cleared his throat. "Anyways...Hendery, truth or dare?" 

"I'll say dare." 

"I dare you to...kiss whoever you think is the most physically attractive person in the room. It doesn't matter if they have a boyfriend or not." 

Hendery scanned the room. "But you're all beautiful, man." 

"But who is the most beautiful?" Renjun said. 

Hendery sighed, deep in thought, before finally deciding. Without warning he leapt up and kissed Yangyang. At first Yangyang seemed shocked but when Hendery pulled away, he was wearing a confident smirk. Neither of them seemed particularly embarrassed. 

"Good choice. I know I'm hot," Yangyang said. 

"You are hot, man. Thank god you've got that," Hendery said. Everyone quickly started laughing. 

"What's that supposed to mean?" Yangyang whined. 

"Taeyong, truth or dare?" 

Taeyong smiled, still laughing. "Dare." 

"I dare you to pull off Ten's pants with your teeth," Hendery said very confidently. 

Taeyong and Ten cheered and everyone else groaned. 

"Yes!" Taeyong cried, the two laying down so he could do it. 

"Remember when we did this in the first or second year of camp?" Ten said as Taeyong looked around for where to put his teeth. 

"Hell yeah," Taeyong answered and without a moment's pause tugged the elastic waistband of Ten's pajama pants down to his thighs. 

"No!" Doyoung cried and Taeyong and Ten laughed, pulling back up his pants and saying up. 

"Says the voyeur..." Ten mumbled and Doyoung turned bright red. 

"Anyways..." Taeyong said, rubbing Ten's back. "Jeno, truth or dare?" 

"Dare," Jeno said confidently, not scared anymore to play this game. 

"Now that you and Jaemin have....go to the cabin and draw Jaemin like one of your french girls," Taeyong said. Jaemin gave Jeno a worried look but Jeno just shrugged. 

"Okay," he answered, grabbing Jaemin's hand and walking out of the dining hall. 

"Baby are you alright?" Jaemin quickly asked. 

"Yes, yes," Jeno answered chuckle. "I have an idea." 

"What is it?" Jaemin asked, calming down seeing Jeno's bright mood. 

"So I'll quickly sketch a random naked dude body, and then we will move around everyone's things not enough to be suspicious but definitely enough for them to notice and be confused. 

Jaemin quickly kissed Jeno on the cheek. "You're a genius." 

~~~~~~~~~~

Ten minutes later the couple returned to the dining hall. Giggling at each other, Jeno slapped down the drawing in front of Taeyong and went back to their seats, whispering conspiratorily to each other. Taeyong looked down at the paper and nodded approvingly. 

"Taeil, truth or dare?" Jeno asked. 

"Um...I'll say truth." 

Jeno smiled. "So...if we had to rearrange all of the camp couples, how would you do it?" 

"Hmm....that's a really interesting question. I guess...Sicheng and Kun because of that one year at camp, Doyoung and Jungwoo because Doyoung's always taken care of Jungwoo, Jaehyun and Taeyong because Jaehyun would keep Taeyong from being too crazy and Taeyong would help Jaehyun be more adventurous, maybe...Johnny and Ten because they both have a wild streak, Jeno and Renjun because they're good friends already plus Jeno is the ball of sunshine Renjun might need, Jaemin and Donghyuck because they are both equally cuddly, uh, Yukhei and Mark because they can both be oblivious together, that...that leaves me with Yuta, which you know, I can kind of see in a weird way. Oh, and Chenle and Jisung could never be with anybody else." 

Everyone thought about Taeil's answer for a moment. 

"I hate it, but I could kind of see it too," Jaehyun said, and everyone agreed with him. 

"Alright...Sicheng, truth or dare?" 

"I'll say dare," Sicheng answered. 

"Tell Yuta a secret you've been keeping from him all of camp." 

Sicheng thought for a moment then smiled. "I really want you to fuck me," Sicheng whispered in Yuta's ear. Yuta's eyes immediately grew huge and he stared at his boyfriend with surprise. Sicheng blushed and chuckled, then cleared his throat. "Yuta, truth or dare?" 

Yuta looked even more surprised. "Um, dare." 

"Tell me a secret you've been keeping from me all of camp." 

Yuta smirked too and leaned in to whisper back in Sicheng's ear. "I wanna fuck you too." They shared a firey glance and a smile. "Later," Yuta mouthed, and Sicheng nodded. 

"My turn!" Yuta cheered like nothing had just happened. "Doyoung, truth or dare?" 

"I'll say truth." 

"Do you guys have sex in the office?" 

"Pfft, no way. Hell no," Doyoung answered, her and Jaehyun sharing an awkward chuckle. 

"Are you sure about that?" Johnny asked, and Doyoung flushed. 

"Well...only once..." he mumbled. 

"Called it!" Ten cried. 

"Guys!" Doyoung whined. "Who is left? Oh, Jaemin, truth or dare?" 

"I'm tired, I'll say truth." 

"How was you and Jeno's first time?" Doyoung asked, completely innocently. Jaemin and Jeno shared a look and a short nod, and Jaemin knew what to say. 

"We didn't end up doing it," Jaemin said with a confident smile. 

"Really?" Yukhei asked with surprise, and Jaemin shook his head. 

"We weren't ready. We don't need to." 


	25. Party Boat

Today was an exciting day for Mark and Donghyuck. Today was one of the few days that they got to combine groups and share an activity, and it was one of their favorites: the party boat. The party boat was one of the funnest end of camp activities, where the thirteen to fifteens and the sixteen to eighteens counselors chained together two motorboats and took their campers to the middle of the lake, where they handed out snacks, played music, and let them all swim around on the lake with supervision. All the counselors had to do was sit on the motorboat, eat snacks, hang out with each other, and watch the kids, plus they were getting Jeno and Jaemin's help (they were the lifeguards after all, and they had been dreading their help before but now that they had made up it was exciting to have double the help). The only issue was getting the campers excited too. 

In the middle of breakfast Donghyuck and Mark split up to go ask their campers to come. From the other side of the dining hall Mark could hear Donghyuck's campers cheer and Mark took a deep breath. He could do this. They were his campers, after all. 

"Hey guys!" Mark spoke cheerfully. 

"Oh god, what is it now," his older camper said. 

"Don't be a bitch," another camper spoke to him, smacking his arm. Mark smiled a little bit. 

"Well, today is the party boat!" 

"Oh shit! That one's actually fun," one of Mark's campers spoke. 

"Hell yeah, before lunch, right? We'll be there," another added, and all of Mark's campers nodded at him. 

"Wait...really?" Mark asked, happy but hesitant. 

"Yeah," they answered, and Mark could see no trickery or malice in their eyes. 

He beamed at them. "Okay, guys! After breakfast just go to the bridge by the stream and we'll be there!" They nodded at him, and Mark skipped over to Donghyuck. 

"How did it go?" Donghyuck asked worriedly. 

"Great, actually," Mark answered gleefully. 

"Seriously." 

Mark giggled. "Yup. I know, I was surprised too." 

And that just made their activity as a couple all the more sweet.

~~~~~~~~~~

On the party boat, things were even sweeter. It was a beautiful day out, warm but not burningly hot, which was especially nice with the reflection of the sun on the lake making everything hotter. All of the teenage campers came, and they were all either hanging out on the edge of the boats or swimming in the water. Mark, Donghyuck, Jeno, and Jaemin had stopped the boats, watching the campers and gorging themselves on snacks by the controls. 

Mark and Donghyuck sat on the benches of the boat, looking on at the water. Both in their swimsuits in case they had to jump into the water and save a camper, all of the campers had been surprised and amazed by Donghyuck's tattoos. Mark knew they were staring and he felt so proud that this gorgeous badass was his boyfriend. 

Donghyuck had his arm thrown over Mark's shoulder, his tan skin contrasting with Mark's pale, carding his hand throw his hair as they spoke. Mark sighed with relief. His campers didn't hate him, and even though camp was almost over, he didn't have to leave Donghyuck's side. Everything was going more perfectly than he could have imagined. 

"You two are so sweet," Jeno said to them. Mark whined and nuzzled his face into Donghyuck's bare shoulder, and Donghyuck held him a little tighter. 

"I know," Donghyuck answered, so very him. 

"Who would've thought the shy awkward kid and the most obnoxious twelve year old the world had ever seen would end up together, even almost six years later?" Jaemin asked. 

Donghyuck scoffed. "I did." 

"Me too," Mark protested. 

"Mark, you were awfully hesitant back during that first year of camp," Jaemin brought up. 

"I was embarrassed, okay?" Mark whined. "I totally liked him but I was afraid everyone would tease me. And even though I did like him, you have to admit, boo, you were coming on a bit strong..." 

Donghyuck tilted his head and thought for a moment. "I guess you're right baby boy." 

"You guess?" Jeno cried, and all of the counselors laughed. 

"Alright, you are right. But I was twelve. And it worked. I mean, you're still with me." 

"True, true," Mark mumbled. 

"And you love me, quite a bit." 

Mark blushed so hard his visible chest was a bit pink. "Also true," he mumbled. 

"Donghyuck, you haven't changed a bit. You are still ever the flirt," Jaemin spoke. 

"Only with Mark," he said defensively. 

"Exactly, you haven't changed a bit. Flirting way too hard but only with Mark," Jeno said. 

"And Mark hasn't changed either, pretending to be embarrassed but secretly loving it," Jaemin added. 

Donghyuck shrugged. "Okay, you're right. Are they?" 

He looked down at Mark who was pouting slightly. "Yeah..." Mark admitted. 

"You two have been together longer than us," Jaemin said. "Almost six years." 

"Yup. Six years exactly on the last day of camp," Donghyuck proudly answered. 

"And what a wonderful six years it has been. Actually...not really. What a wonderful six summers. I spent most of the rest of that time just missing you," Mark said, his voice growing quieter as he admitted something so personal. 

"And now we finally won't have to split up. After six fucking years," Donghyuck spoke. 

"Thank god. I mean, we deserve it, it's been so long. But..." Mark groaned just at the thought. "I have to live on the freshman dorm floor again." 

"Is it really that bad?" Jeno asked. 

"Is finding weed and condoms in the elevator every day that bad?" Mark answered. 

Jeno and Jaemin shared a frightened look. 

"Speaking of, aren't you two living on the same dorm floor?" Donghyuck asked. Jeno and Jaemin shared excited smiles and nodded. 

"We are. It's our first time living near each other too and I'm...I'm so excited," Jeno admitted. 

"It's a good thing you two made up again then, right?" Donghyuck teased. 

"No matter what we would have. I can't imagine life without him," Jaemin said, and Jeno and him shared another affectionate look. 

And it was true. Jaemin was so happy that he and Jeno made up, so that they could finally enjoy camp together. Thinking back he could tell Jeno had been uncomfortable ever since they got to camp, and he had to admit that he'd been nervous too. He was unbelievably glad the two of them could have some time at camp together, even if it was just a week or so, to be in love and enjoy the place where they first met. 

Jeno had always been perfect to Jaemin, and he was perfect still. The two were sitting on the motorboat benches across from Mark and Donghyuck, in their little lifeguard outfits. Jeno had his head in Jaemin's lap and Jaemin was mindlessly curling his fingers through Jeno's black hair, roughed up by all their time in the pool and the sun but still soft to Jaemin's touch. Jaemin sighed softly. Things could not have been better. 

"Jaemin?" Jeno questioned quietly. 

"Mmh?" Jaemin answered, coming back to earth and shaking his head. Mark and Donghyuck had already changed the subject, talking amongst himself. 

"Whatcha thinking about?" Jeno asked, his little voice and smile so cute to Jaemin that it almost made his heart break. 

"You." 

Jeno giggled and gave Jaemin a shy smile. "I'm sorry...we, we could have had more times like this if I had just been honest with you from the start. 

"No, Jeno," Jaemin whined. "I'm sorry. I shouldn't have built that up so much for us and planned so hard." 

"Please don't apologize anymore." 

"No, you don't apologize anymore!" Jaemin whined. The two started laughing quietly. "I guess we should both stop apologizing." 

"Yeah. Let's not waste any more of our time together. Let's just be happy." 

"But you know, we have all the time in the world now, since we're going to live so close together." 

Jeno beamed at the thought. "I'm so excited! Every day I just get more and more excited." Now that he and Jaemin had talked it out, all of the pressure of them living so close had disappeared. Now he could just let himself be happy about it. 

"I think it's gonna be amazing," Jaemin answered. 

"Oh my gosh, I just can't wait. I hope we both have nice roommates." 

"Same," Jaemin said firmly. "They'll have to be okay with us being over all the time." 

"True. And, ooh! We can go on study dates together!" 

Jaemin giggled. "What about regular dates?" 

Jeno paused before staring up at Jaemin with wide eyes. "Have we even been on a regular date?" 

"I don't think so," Jaemin mumbled. "Since we only ever see each other in person at camp." 

Slowly, they both started to giggle. "Well...I guess since I've never asked this before, it's time. Baby, will you go on a date with me?" 

Jaemin giggled some more. "Yes. I cannot wait!" 


	26. Drunken Nights

It was long after hours when all of the counselors (plus Xiaojun, who sort of had become a counselor anyways) were gathered in the dining hall. But surprisingly, they weren't there to play truth or dare.   
In the afternoon Yangyang had announced he was going to give all of the counselors a little break; a little treat. A few hours later he returned with obscene amounts of very expensive alcohol, all for them to drink (even Chenle and Jisung, who they were giving a pass to even though they were very underaged). For once, Yangyang came through; the counselors were overjoyed. 

As soon as all of the campers were put together the counselors raced to the dining hall, downing shots in little paper water cups, tequila and vodka and spiced rum and every dangerous alcohol you could possibly think of, and Yangyang watched it all happen with a grin. 

It was only half an hour later when they all were fucked. 

Johnny had very quickly turned on some music and was smiling and sitting down, remembering all of the crazy overdrunk parties he went to in high school, almost exactly like this. It was nice though, being this wasted around people he actually liked. 

"Joh-nny," Taeil spoke in a sing-song voice. Johnny grinned sloppily at his boyfriend; he was a bit of a lightweight. 

"Yeah?" 

Taeil giggled. "Let's dance." 

Johnny snorted but smiled. "Okay." He shoved away some of the tables and he and Taeil started dancing along to the shitty rap music he'd randomly put on through his blurred vision. Suddenly, Hendery slid over to the couple and waggled his eyebrows. 

"May I join you...both?" He asked seductively. Johnny and Taeil shared a look. Fuck it, why not? 

"Alright," Taeil said cutely and Johnny and Taeil split apart for just a moment, sandwiching Hendery between them to grind on him. 

Meanwhile, Doyoung and Jaehyun were watching everyone from the far table, hand in hand. The couple had decided to stay sober just in case of an emergency with the campers, or the counselors (which seemed more likely at that point). 

"What are those three doing?" Doyoung teased, pointing to Hendery, Johnny and Taeil. 

"I...I don't wanna know," Jaehyun mumbled, and the couple shared a chuckle. 

"I didn't think they'd be into stuff like that." 

"Like what?" 

Doyoung raised his eyebrows. "Sharing." 

Jaehyun hummed. "I mean, it doesn't seem like Hendery would mind that..." He trailed off as Hendery pulled Yangyang into their little grinding line. 

"Wait a second...are those two okay?" Doyoung asked, gesturing to the other side of the room. Jaehyun squinted and turned his eyes to see Chenle and Jisung clearly struggling.  
"Oh my god," Chenle whined. "Oh....my god...." he mumbled after, his eyes blinking slowly. 

"Have...have you drank before?" Jisung asked, wobbling where he stood. Chenle grimaced and shook his head. "Me too," Jisung groaned.

"I...I kinda wish I had now," Chenle spoke dazedly. 

"Me....me too." Jisung snorted. "They're...they're gonna tease the fuck out of us tomorrow."

"You think they're any better than us?" Chenle managed to respond before clutching his stomach. 

"Babe-"

"F-fuck," Chenle stuttered. "I feel like- like-" He tripped and clutched the table, his head rolling around. 

"Like you're gonna vom?" Jisung managed to ask. 

Chenle nodded then threw his hand over his mouth. 

"Me too." 

The two high schoolers looked at each other with panic and ran out of the dining hall, throwing open the doors. Luckily nobody was in the counselors cabins or bathroom, because they would've have had to listen to the sound of vomiting for a disgusting amount of time. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Deeper into the night, the landscape of the dining hall looked a little different. Somehow, everyone looked even messier than before. 

Renjun had just returned from his piss break/check up on Chenle and Jisung time to find his two best friends, Jaemin and Jeno, literally passed out. On the floor. Of the dining hall. Which gross kids dropped their food on.

"Fuck!" Renjun whined. He was drunk as hell too but as much as he liked seeing his besties suffer, he didn't like seeing them suffer that much. "Fine." 

He walked to the couple and roughly shook their shoulders. "Whah?" Jeno mumbled. 

"You're passed out on the fucking floor," Renjun grumbled. 

"Confy," Jeno said cutely before falling back asleep again. 

Renjun groaned loudly and Jaemin blinked awake. "Renjun?" 

"We are going back to the cabin. Now." 

Jaemin sat up and wobbled, repeatedly tapping his boyfriend. 

"Come on," Renjun grumbled, hoisting the couple up. As if getting them up wasn't task enough, now he had to get them back to the cabin.

Meanwhile, Ten gave absolutely no fucks about how Renjun, Jeno, and Jaemin were doing. He was on a mission. 

Ten had spent the whole night avoiding his husband, drunkenly chatting with everyone that wasn't passed out, making out, or gone. He'd even danced with the big group on the floor, knowing that husband would watch. Just to be a tease. 

Finally, it was time for him to get the payoff of all that teasing. He walked over to Taeyong, clearly fuming in the corner, and tapped his shoulder. 

"Hey babe," Ten said like nothing was wrong. 

"Don't...don't babe me," Taeyong drunkenly answered, throwing Ten down (as gently as possible) onto one of the dining room tables and capturing his lips in a deep kiss. Ten smiled into it; he'd won. 

"That's so hot Yuta," Sicheng whined, staring at Taeyong and Ten. Yuta had a little bit to drink but hadn't gone overboard like some of the others (he was deeply scarred from freshman year of college), but his boyfriend had, especially since he never drank. 

And the result had been very unexpected. Sicheng was not an angry drunk, a cuddly drunk, or a sad drunk: he was a horny drunk. 

Which would have been nice if Yuta was as drunk as Sicheng or neither of them were drunk at all, but Yuta knew he could not and would not take advantage of his boyfriend. It was absolutely hilarious though (especially since Sicheng had taken to humping his leg). 

"Do that to me," Sicheng whispered in Yuta's ear, eyes still on Ten and Taeyong. 

"Later," Yuta answered, trying to hold back a chuckle. 

"Not later!" Sicheng cried. "Even they're making out!" 

The couple he was pointing to was Kun and Xiaojun, Kun straddling Xiaojun's lap on one of the little kid chairs. 

"You're fucking good at that," Kun said breathlessly against Xiaojun's lips. 

"You too," Xiaojun answered. "I'm a bit surprised." 

"Don't be," Kun smirked and the two kissed deeply again, Xiaojun's hands caressing every inch of Kun's body. 

"How...how did we end up like this?" Xiaojun asked, his voice slurred. 

"I dunno," Kun answered. "Stop talking." 

"Are you gonna remember this?" 

"No..." Kun paused to lick Xiaojun's neck. "I blackout every time I drink." 

"You better remember; this is fucking hot!" Xiaojun whined. 

"Shut up!" Kun growled, pressing their lips together again. 

Suddenly, Xiaojun snorted in Kun's mouth. "Are you caressing my eyebrows?" 

"Shut the fuck up," Kun mumbled under his breath, not letting the delivery boy away from his lips for even a second, both far too drunk to have any inhibitions. 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Ahhh!" Yukhei screamed angrily. 

"What is it babe?" Jungwoo asked cutely, wobbling and pouting up at his boyfriend. 

"I fucking hate them!" 

"Who?" 

"You're stupid college friends! Taking you away from me, making you feel sad...never! I hate those stupid...stupid...never!" 

"Yeah!" Jungwoo cried, stomping his foot down, both too drunk to see how ridiculous this was. "I hate them! Fuck them!" 

"Ahhh!" Yukhei screamed again, grabbing a plate from the kitchen and smashing it against the wall. "Fuck! That felt good!" 

"I'm gonna do it too!" Jungwoo screamed, grabbing a mug and letting it shatter against the wall as well. 

"Yeah!" Yukhei yelled. "My tough boyfriend called those motherfuckers out! Jungwoo is smashing plates!" 

"No more repression!" Jungwoo screamed, grabbing an entire tray table and throwing it onto the wall, where it broke into tiny pieces. "I am strong! I am invicible! I can stand up for my boyfriend! Nobody's gonna walk all over me again!" 

In the opposite corner, Mark sniffled. "I'm gonna miss them smashing plates," he mumbled before bursting into tears. Donghyuck and Mark were crouched tightly in the corner of the dining hall, tissues littering the area around them. Turns out, both of them were sad drunks. 

Donghyuck wailed. "I'm gonna miss them! Jungwoo and Yukhei...and they just got back together...what if they break up again?" 

At that Mark sobbed loudly. "And what about Chenle and Jisung? What if the distance is too much for them, and, and-" 

The couple started loudly crying once again, tightly holding onto each other. 

"I'm gonna miss camp so much," Donghyuck cried. "I can't stand it. Why does summer have to end? Why? Why?" 

And Mark just cried back, while Doyoung and Jaehyun laughed at them (before finally noticing Jungwoo and Yukhei smashing plates and forcibly removing them from the dining hall).


	27. Teen Dance

"Why. Why the fuck did the teen dance have to be today?" Mark groaned loudly. 

"God, I know," Donghyuck answered, reaching up to try and press the decor onto the wall. 

Normally, Donghyuck and Mark would have been very excited to be able to have an event together. Plus, the teen dance was always a fun one that both Mark and Donghyuck's campers actually seemed excited for. Other than breaking up the inevitable grinding and twerking, it would have been one of the highlights of Mark and Donghyuck's time as counselors for the teen campers. Taeyong had Ten had even volunteered to DJ and keep an eye on the kids. 

But Donghyuck and Mark were hungover. Not just slight, fun night out, headache the next day hungover. No they were hungover, like waiting in line for the bathroom to vomit as soon as they woke up hungover, nauseous at any scent of alcohol hungover, can really only keep orange juice and saltine crackers down hungover, throbbing head and sensitive ears and eyes hungover. The idea of spending their evening in a cramped smelly cabin with flashing lights and a throbbing bass was really their worst nightmare. No amount of advil could really fix their problem. 

"Yo!" A voice suddenly called. Donghyuck and Mark turned to see Taeyong and Ten standing in the doorway. Smiling. 

"What are you guys doing here?" Mark asked in a drawl. 

"We came up to help; we figured you two would need it," Taeyong explained. 

"Plus we need to set up the DJ stand," Ten added. 

"Thank god," Donghyuck spoke. 

"You're welcome!" Ten answered in a sing song voice, starting with the DJ table. 

"How...how are you happy? Don't you feel disgusting after last night?" Mark asked as Taeyong looked around at Mark and Donghyuck's handiwork. 

Ten and Taeyong shared a smile. "You know, both of us drank way too much in high school. Our bodies are more used to it," Taeyong explained. 

"Not to mention, we know when to stop," Ten added. "Kind of." 

"Mmh," Mark mustered jealously, going back to hanging up decor.

Donghyuck gesturing to the box of paper decorations that looked fifteen years old. All four boys stared at it, wondering how it could have lasted so long. "Now, get to work." 

Taeyong reached in and started to help them hang stuff up, while Ten started plugging his laptop into the speakers while he set stuff down on the DJ table.

Mark looked at him and gasped. "Wait...is that more alcohol?" 

Ten shrugged. "It's a dance. We need something to drink." 

"After last night?" Donghyuck cried. 

"Come on, it'll take the edge off. Ever heard of hair of the dog?" Taeyong said. 

"Don't bring that stuff near me. I'll throw up at just the smell," Donghyuck grumbled. 

Soon enough Donghyuck and Mark returned to their work, too sick to speak, so Taeyong and Ten started hanging up decor on the other side of the cabin. 

"I can't believe Doyoung would do this for every single high school dance," Ten said with a scoff.

"Wait, what?" Taeyong asked. 

"Don't you remember? He was in student council for like...all of high school. What a fucking nerd," Ten teased with fondness in his voice. 

"I always hated those types at my school, but I love Doyoung to death. It's funny how we're all so different but we became good friends. More than that really. Like...a family," Taeyong spoke whistfully. 

"It is funny," Ten responded in a thoughtful mumble. Taeyong paused decorating to come behind Ten and wrap him up in a back hug. 

"Thank god we have each other. I don't know what I'd do if I couldn't see anyone from Camp Purple, except during the summer," Taeyong mumbled sadly into Ten's shoulder. 

"Guys!" Mark suddenly whined, reminiscent of when he was thirteen and complaining about Taeyong and Ten making out. "Hurry up! The sun is about to set and we have to have this done before dinner!" 

~~~~~~~~~~

The time finally came. Mark and Donghyuck's campers had shockingly agreed to attend, and Mark and Donghyuck lead them up to the cabin for the dance. When they got there, the strobe lights were flashing and the music was blasting. Mark and Donghyuck shared a smile; despite everything they'd done a good job. 

After a few minutes of encouraging their more shy campers to come inside and dance, the couple entered in themselves. Immediately they grimaced; it was a hungover person's worst nightmare, just like they had expected. Plus, now they had the arduous task of breaking up the grinding teens. 

Doyoung and Jaehyun had insisted that the boys break up any dirty dancing so Donghyuck began to work on getting his campers to separate from their grinding chain. As much as he tried to separate them, as soon as his back was turned, they would just roll their eyes at him and continue. Donghyuck sighed and decided it wasn't worth it, going to see what his boyfriend was up to. 

Even though Taeyong and Ten were supposed to be helping Mark and Donghyuck break up the kids, they were distracted. Ten would put on a song and immediately go to make out with Taeyong on the DJ table. As soon as the song started to end, they would feverently break their kiss to sneak a sip of alcohol and switch to the next ugly sounding top forty hit to play. Luckily, no one but Mark and Donghyuck noticed, but it wasn't exactly a pretty sight to see. But what was a worse sight to see was Mark's campers.

Suddenly, when Ten put on 'Work' by Rihanna, Mark and Donghyuck saw two of their campers grinding on another. Mark was terrified; he didn't want to ruin the slight understanding he'd built with his campers But he knew both of them were sixteen, and Doyoung would murder him if he ever found out this happened without being stopped. So Mark sighed as Donghyuck watched, pushing his way through the tight throngs of sweaty teens (and grimacing at the grossness of it all) and approaching the couple. 

"Break it up guys," Mark said to the teenage couple. 

"You suck!" one of them whined but he stood up from his bent over position on the other's dick. He gave Mark the worst death glare Mark had ever been given in his life, and he deflated.

"You're the worst," the camper growled, and Mark knew it was completely sincere. The camper had wrapped one arm protectively around the other's waist, and his hand he placed on the other's ass. Mark pretended not to notice and grimaced to himself.

"Honestly, I'm just doing this because if any kids tell their parents that they saw an underaged boy twerking on an underaged boy at the teen dance then we could get in serious trouble."

"But those kids are grinding!" the camper whined, pointing to Donghyuck's campers, who were graphically grinding on each other, with Donghyuck trying to physically tear them apart from each other

Mark just sighed. "Believe me; we've tried to stop them," he responded. "Now go have fun! And no twerking. Save that for your cabin room," Mark said and left. Mark could feel the camper flip him off behind his back, and sighed deeply to himself. Time to go help Donghyuck split up his own campers. He didn't know what was worse. 

Meanwhile by the DJ stand, Ten and Taeyong were having a good time. 

"For a pair of high school slackers, the two of us did pretty good," Ten said to Taeyong, looking around at the decor. 

"I'm sure Doyoung would be disappointed though," Taeyong responded.

Ten chuckled to himself. "Mark and Donghyuck already are." 

The two of them squished themselves into the back of the cabin, trying to avoid getting accidentally grinded by a teenager, because boy would that have been awkward. Donghyuck and Mark made frantic gestures at them, and Ten and Taeyong (despite their tipsiness) got the gist. 

"Last song!" Ten yelled as he finally picked out a slow song. They watched as the campers stopped grinding and moved into couples to sway together, and Mark and Donghyuck almost collapse with relief. 

Despite everything, this was Ten and Taeyong's favorite part of the night: each of the teenagers was paired up, and they lovingly slow danced with each other. It was by far the cutest thing they had ever seen in their life. 

"Reminds me of when we were campers," Ten mumbled. 

Taeyong nuzzled his nose into Ten's shoulder. "I know. It's weird to think we were that young once."

At the end of the slow song the dance was over, and Donghyuck and Mark gathered their campers to walk back to camp. Ten and Taeyong volunteered to stay behind and clean up, but waiting until all of the kids left the cabin. 

"That went pretty well, I thought," Taeyong said. 

"Oh yeah. That was great," Ten added. 

Donghyuck and Mark glared at the couple. "For you two!" They simoultaneously spoke. 


	28. goodbye-ish

"Oh Kunnie!" Renjun teased in a sing song voice, and Kun turned to glare at him. 

"What." 

"Today's the day." 

"What day? What are you even talking about? I have no idea," Kun completely and totally lied.

Renjun sighed and rolled his eyes. "It's the last day for the caterers to drop off food, idiot." 

Qian Kun is a lot of things, but one thing he isn't is an idiot. He knew. Oh, he knew starting from a week ago that Xiaojun and his father were dropping off the last of the food two days before camp ended. Kun honestly didn't know how to feel about all of it. On one hand, the public humiliation involved with whatever he had with Xiaojun would be over. No pestering from the other kitchen staff and literally every other counselor and even Xiaojun himself. But on the other hand...there was a reason Xiaojun and his stupid eyebrows made him so flustered, after all. Despite everything, Kun was going to miss him. It was especially rough since all of Xiaojun's flirting and his embarrassment had led to literally nothing. Maybe...maybe the two of them could steal a quick moment, in private, for a proper goodbye. No, no, Kun thought, retracting his idea as just the thought of it literally made him blush. The other boys would surely find them and humiliate them, once again. Even otherwise it was far too scary, and Kun's job when it came to romance was to be afraid. 

"You know what that means, Kun," Yangyang teased, Kun shaking his head and returning to the real world. He began to just ignore his friends and try to organize the kitchen. 

"I wonder how it's gonna go," Hendery piped up. "Will there be a gentle, longing look? A soft stolen kiss? Or another very public passionate makeout session?" 

"Wait wait wait wait wait," Kun interrupted, frozen in place. "Another make out session?" 

Yangyang scoffed. "Don't you remember?" Kun continued to look at him in confusion. "Two nights ago when we were all super drunk...the dining hall...him straddling you in the little kid chairs...." 

Renjun, Yangyang, and Hendery could immediately tell Kun didn't remember a second of that, and quickly burst into laughter. 

"You guys aren't making this up, right? Are you guys pranking me?" Kun cried. 

"You really don't remember?" Renjun answered, and Kun slowly slid down onto the ground. 

"I always black out when I drink," Kun whined, and everyone just laughed harder. 

"I'll just say you seemed pretty into it," Yangyang teased. 

"No no no no no no no," Kun mumbled as his friends all cackled around him, just as the kitchen door opened. 

And the voice Kun wanted to hear least and most in that moment spoke. "What's so funny?" Xiaojun asked the kitchen staff, wearing a little smile. Kun could only spare the briefest of glances at him before putting his face back in his palms. 

"He didn't remember you two made out a couple nights ago and we just reminded him now," Renjun explained. 

Xiaojun gasped, fake angrily. "How could you? It was so hot!" 

Kun just groaned loudly. "How did it even happen?" 

Xiaojun scoffed. "Well, that I don't remember." Kun groaned again and Xiaojun walked over to the corner of the room where Kun was crouching on the floor, stretching out a hand for him. "Don't be embarrassed," he spoke, more softly than usual. "From what I can tell your friends do that sort of shit all the time." 

Kun snorted, managing a smile. "True." He grasped Xiaojun's hand and the shorter boy helped him stand, giving him a blinding smile that made Kun blink. 

"Help me with the boxes?" he asked. 

"Yeah," Kun answered breathlessly. 

It was surprisingly quiet when the two walked out of the kitchen, down to the truck where Xiaojun's dad was settling the boxes of food onto the grassy ground. Kun said a polite hello and with a grunt, the two boys lifted the boxes. Kun was surprised by the silence; he hadn't thought Xiaojun was a quiet person, but it seemed natural. Maybe he didn't know the delivery boy as well as he thought he did. 

"Are you sad to go?" Xiaojun finally spoke up. Maybe Xiaojun was talking about the camp itself, but Kun was sure he knew what Xiaojun was really bringing up. 

"Yeah," Kun admitted, a rare moment of vulnerability. "Especially because nothing...nothing ever really happened. Wait- I take that back. Something did happen. I just can't remember it." 

"I'm with you. I'm fucking disappointed." Xiaojun turned to see Kun deflate and quickly shook his head. "Don't blame yourself though, alright? Please don't." 

Kun relaxed just a little at that and the two made their way back into the kitchen, setting the stuff down. Since there were only a few days left of camp they only needed two boxes worth of food. Which was good for Kun's already sore arms, but not good for his heart, as much as he didn't want to admit it. 

Renjun, Yangyang, and Hendery were both watching Kun and Xiaojun from the corner of the room, refusing to come any closer and do their work. Kun sighed; he'd chew them out later. 

"I guess this is goodbye," Kun said with a sad chuckle, staring down at his shoes. 

Xiaojun smiled and immediately the mood was lifted, and Kun cursed himself for being so fucking whipped. "I don't know about that. Where do you go to school?" 

"UC Merced, why?" Kun answered quickly. 

Suddenly, Xiaojun's jaw dropped, and he began to laugh. 

"What?" Kun cried in confusion. 

"I go there too." 

Now it was time for Kun's jaw to drop. "No...." 

Xiaojun chuckled. "Yup." 

"Wait, wait, what? This camp is nowhere near UC Merced...and plus, I-I've never seen you around before..." 

"What grade are you in then? I'm gonna be a sophomore next year," Xiaojun explained. 

"Well...I'll be a junior..." 

"So that's why." 

Kun could kind of sort of hear Yangyang, Renjun, and Hendery laughing in the background, but most of his brain was occupied. This was a wrench in his thinking that he absolutely did not imagine was going to happen, and more than anything he was confused. 

"There's no fucking way...this can't be..." Kun trailed off. 

"Well it is," Xiaojun said with a smile. 

"It's fate!" Yangyang yelled from the corner. 

"For once that kid is right," Xiaojun spoke. 

Kun just stared at his shoes. 

"You know...now that we're stuck together and all...I think it's time you and I went on a date." 

Now Kun was even more shocked, quickly looking back up at Xiaojun with wide eyes. He spluttered and tripped over his words, nothing understandable coming out of his mouth. 

"Come on Kun, you can't deny at this point it's gotta happen. Why not? I mean, you think I'm sexy. I think you're sexy. You're a good kisser, and somewhere in your subconscious you know I'm a good kisser. You like my eyebrows a little too much, I think you're cute and a little uptight but that makes you even more cute. We met at this summer camp that's completely unrelated to our school and started something up having no idea we'd see each other in the fall." Xiaojun sighed. "You're smart, I'm smart-" 

"Xiaojun!" Kun shouted and Xiaojun froze, the two boys facing each other so close they could almost feel each other's breaths on their faces. "Xiaojun you don't have to convince me! I wanna go on a date with you!" 

Just then the kitchen door flew open and everyone turned to see Xiaojun's father awkwardly standing in the doorway. Yangyang, Hendery, and Renjun immediately burst out laughing again. Kun turned a bright red and there was even a slight blush on the tips of Xiaojun's ears. 

"Uh, hey dad," Xiaojun spoke, Kun and him taking a step back from each other. 

"Hello," his dad slowly answered. "I, just, wanted to thank you all for good work this summer and say goodbye. But...I guess you're busy." 

"Sorry, sir," Kun mumbled. 

"Thank you as well for delivering the food! The most important part of a functioning camp," Renjun said, stepping up to the responsible plate as Hendery and Yangyang giggled in the corner. "Hopefully we can work together next summer." 

"I'll be there in a sec," Xiaojun said, and his dad waved goodbye to everyone, going back to the truck. Once he was gone, Xiaojun started feeling around Kun's pants for his phone before pulling it out of his back pocket. 

"What are you doing?" Kun mumbled, a little shell shocked to react any more. Xiaojun typed something in, then handed the phone back to Kun. 

"See you in the fall," he said, throwing Kun a wink and waving goodbye to everyone else before heading out the kitchen door. 

Kun stood, frozen for a moment, before unlocking his phone. He could see that Xiaojun had made himself a contact and called himself to get Kun's number. Kun sighed deeply when he saw Xiaojun had entered his contact name as 'your future boyfriend'. God, Kun was so fucked. 


	29. Their Last Real Day

As Taeil stood outside the store, he sighed. This was where he had spent literally his entire summer, in this one cabin, talking to campers to counselors and taking candy bars for himself. It was bittersweet, really, the store cabin's air conditioning had been wonky at best, and it would be nice to not be dying of heatstroke every day. But at the same time...it was a wonderful summer. A perfect summer. 

He finally locked the door for good and went to go find his boyfriend. Luckily they wouldn't have to be separated since they lived together after all, but that hadn't had too much time this summer and Taeil was craving it. 

He found him quickly, standing in a circle with his campers in the middle of the field. It looked awfully sad, and Taeil's heart panged at the sight. 

"Alright guys," Johnny said. "I think that's it." 

To Taeil's shock, he heard the nastiest of all Johnny's twelve year olds sniffle before the whole crowd of them ran over to Johnny to hug him. They all started crying onto Johnny's massive chest and although Johnny smiled and patted their backs, Taeil knew Johnny was sad too. 

"Taeil!" Johnny cried as soon as he spotted his boyfriend. 

"Come here and hug us too!" One of Johnny's younger campers added. So with a bittersweet smile, Taeil did as they asked. 

~~~~~~~~~~

For the first time that entire summer, not one thing at camp was broken. Not a lightbulb, not a bunk bed, nothing. 

So finally, Ten and Taeyong were free. And it was kind of the best day to be free, so they could fully appreciate their last day. 

Taeyong and Ten wandered amongst the camp grounds, through the trees and the gravel and the birds, through the children laughing and running and crying, up to the spot they loved the most: the ledge. 

Laying down on those rocks, Taeyong's head in Ten's lap, hands combing through the cheap dye worn strands, everything was at peace. The day was sad but Ten and Taeyong weren't, just taking in these last moments with a smile. 

"It's so full circle, you know?" 

Ten didn't have to explain; Taeyong knew exactly what he meant. Just like everything they expressed to one another, ever since they'd first met when they were basically babies. 

"I know." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Bye guys! Don't forget to pack!" Sicheng called to his little campers, all sobbing in the grass. Yuta stood behind him; with this free time he could support his boyfriend.

"But I'll miss you!" One cried. 

"Can't you come to my house and be my babysitter?" Another added. 

Sicheng chuckled, holding it together for the kids. "I wish I could sweetie. But if you come back next summer I'll be there." 

"Really?" 

"Let's pack now! Then we can get to next summer faster!" One of the little ones screamed and they all ran off back to their cabins. 

As soon as the kids were gone Sicheng broke, turning to cry into Yuta's shoulder. Yuta rubbed his back, whispering in his ear that everything would be alright. 

"I-I'm gonna miss this so much," he sobbed. "Being here is the best part of my life." 

"Oh Sicheng. You don't have to feel that way any more, remember? You have somewhere wonderful to go back to now. With me." 

Sicheng looked up at Yuta, managing a smile. For the first time in his life, he was a little excited to see what the time after camp had in store.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck," Doyoung grumbled, racing to the other side of the office, papers scattering in his wake. "Do you have Timmy's insurance forms?" 

"Shit," Jaehyun answered, shuffling through the forms like a dog burying a bone. "Here here here!" He cried, handing it to Doyoung as he stuffed it into Timmy's file. 

Doyoung breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank god. If that form had disappeared..." 

"We'd be dead," Jaehyun finished. 

Doyoung and Jaehyun both looked up for a moment, locking eyes amongst the absolute chaos of their offices. 

"Five minute break?" Doyoung suggested, and Jaehyun made a surprised smile.

"Yeah." 

The two pushed some stuff off the couch and sat down, Jaehyun slinging his arm around Doyoung's shoulder. They still had so much to do, but camp was almost over. They had to appreciate it. 

"Do you think we did a good job?" Jaehyun asked. 

Doyoung scoffed. "Of course we did." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Bye!" Jungwoo called to his campers as they dejectedly walked back to their cabin. Both Jungwoo and Yukhei turned, wiping the tears from their eyes and going back to the shed for Yukhei to organize his "adventure counselor" supplies. 

"I'll miss them so much," Yukhei mumbled, stuffing everything into a bag. 

"Me too," Jungwoo added, but slowly he began to smile. He gave his boyfriend a back hug and nestled into his broad shoulder.

Yukhei giggled. "What is it?" 

"I'm excited too though. After this we still get to be together, you know? And we get to start completely fresh. We can just get rid of all the baggage from our first year of school." 

Yukhei grinned back at his boyfriend. "True." 

"Are you worried that we...might break up again?" 

Yukhei shook his head and leaned in closer to Jungwoo. "Not at all, baby. Not at all." 

~~~~~~~~~~

Outside of their camper's cabins, Mark and Donghyuck were saying goodbye. From a distance, Mark could see Donghyuck's campers hugging him, some even tearing up. Donghyuck didn't even have the heart to tease, just comforting them all. 

Mark's campers suddenly opened their door. "Are you here to say goodbye?" One asked, and Mark nodded. 

And to Mark's utter shock, all of them pulled him in for a hug. 

"Wait, wh-what?" 

"We're sorry. We were kind of assholes to you," the meanest of them admitted. 

Mark scoffed. "Kind of?" 

"You did your best. I mean, you're like...barely older than us," another spoke. 

They broke from the hug and Mark stood before them. "Well...thank you for that." 

"Nah, thank you dude." 

Mark grinned. "You better keep all of this in mind when you become counselors." 

The campers groaned. "I dunno if I could do that," another admitted. 

They all shared a soft sigh and Mark nodded. "I'll let you guys have your personal goodbyes and pack up your things. Be ready bright and early tomorrow!" 

The campers groaned but waved goodbye and shut the door, and Mark ran over to Donghyuck. Quietly, the two made their way to the stream and made sure none of their campers were watching. As soon as they were sure they were alone, they shared a secret cry. 

~~~~~~~~~~

As Jeno and Jaemin covered the tarp over the pool for the last time, they shared a bright smile. 

"This is the first time I've ever been excited to start school after camp," Jaemin admitted. 

"Me too," Jeno gently answered.

Jaemin sighed softly, wrapping his arms around Jeno's waist. "I'm so glad we did what we did, you know? Now we can really and truly be together, no inhibitions." 

Jeno held Jaemin back and pecked his lips, staring into his bright eyes. "No inhibitions, my love."

~~~~~~~~~~

Chenle and Jisung were sitting on the steps of the locked up art shack, Chenle's legs swung over Jisung's lap, looking over camp with bittersweet eyes. 

"Nobody...nobody else is that sad. Not like us," Jisung said forlornly. 

"I know," Chenle answered. All of the other counselors were moving on to college, to being together, whenever they wanted. But since Chenle and Jisung were still in high school they were separated, by state lines and shitty teenagers. It had always been sad to part but now that they were together it was so different. 

"Just one year, right? One more year," Chenle spoke. 

"One more fucking year," Jisung grumbled. 

"One more year without pining, at the very least? One more year where I can say you look cute that day and tell you that I love you." 

Jisung gave a small smile and gripped Chenle's hand. "You're right. Maybe it won't be so bad." 

~~~~~~~~~~

It was their final day and Renjun, Kun, Hendery, and Yangyang were cleaning up the kitchen, only leaving out what was necessary for dinner and breakfast the next day. Kun and Renjun seemed over the moon, both getting to see their partners soon after camp ends. But for Yangyang and Hendery...they both knew what the other was feeling. And they really weren't sure what to feel. 

"Hey guys," Jaehyun spoke, him and Doyoung barging into the kitchen. 

"Paycheck time!" Doyoung said, and everyone but Yangyang cheered. 

Confusedly, Yangyang watched as everyone got an envelope. Even he got one. 

"What's this?" He asked. 

Doyoung gave him a confused look. "Your paycheck?" 

"What...what does that even mean?" 

Renjun sighed and rolled his eyes. "A paycheck is what you get for working. It's a check." 

Yangyang thought for a moment before gasping in understanding. "Wait, is this how commoners make money." 

Everyone stared stunned for a moment before bursting into laughter. Hendery came along and slapped him on the back. 

"Welcome to the world of the commoners, kiddo." 


	30. Ten Years Later

Johnny arrived home from work at five in the afternoon, all six of his and Taeil's cats giving him a glare before going back to whatever they were doing before. He could hear the sound of gentle piano wafting through the windows and walls and Johnny smiled, making his way to the back of the house. 

Inside he found his tiny husband sitting at the computer, creating the next beautiful song. 

"Hi," he said sheepishly. "Didn't hear you come in." 

"Hello darling," Johnny answered, kissing the top of Taeil's head. 

"How was work?" 

Johnny shrugged. "The kids are adorable, as always." 

"I don't know how they don't get on your nerves." 

"I am a kindergarten teacher. I signed up for this shit." 

"How's Sicheng?" Taeil asked. Sicheng happened to be the other kindergarten teacher at the same school as Johnny. 

"Actually, he and Yuta are picking up their kid today." 

"Yes!" Taeil cried. "More babysitting gigs!" As Johnny and Taeil decided to have a family of cat babies instead of human babies, they had become the designated babysitters for their friend's kids. 

Johnny leaned down to peck his husband's lips. "I can't wait." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Hey kiddo!" Taeyong said affectionately, ruffling his son's hair. "Are you ready?" 

"Yes papa!" Louis answered, carrying a big suitcase in his tiny hands. Ten and Taeyong's youngest son, Louis, had just turned five. Now that it was June, that meant it was time for his first summer at Camp Purple. They lived far away that they would have to make a multiple day road trip of it, but it was worth it. 

"I'll take care of him I promise daddy," Tommy, their eight year old, said firmly to Ten. 

Ten kissed his son's head. "I know you will. You always take care of Louis." 

"That's my job! I'm the big brother!" Tommy answered, hoisting his and Louis' luggage into the trunk of their car. Ten and Taeyong watched on as their kids babbled with a smile. 

"Why are our lives so fucking perfect?" Ten whispered so the kids wouldn't hear. 

"I know. We got so lucky. But...I'll miss them so much..." Taeyong said, looking down at the ground in utter sadness. 

"But you know what? It's been about eight years since we've had any alone time," Ten mumbled with a smirk. 

Taeyong grinned and winked at his husband at that, and turned to the kids. "Alright, time to go!" 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Oh my god," Sicheng mumbled shakily. He and Yuta were at the state house, holding hands tightly as they waited. It had been a long process, but finally they were ready to take their daughter home. 

"It's gonna be amazing," Yuta said softly, squeezing his husband's hand. "I took a month off of my forensic scientiest job. We can just be with her and each other." 

Just then the state ward turned the corner, carrying a little girl in her arms. Yuta and Sicheng immediately teared up at the sight, and the ward smiled at them. 

"Say hello to Bella," she said, the two men cooing over their little girl. 

"Hi Bella," Sicheng said. Yuta was crying too hard to even speak. 

The one year old girl seemed antsy but happy as the couple played with her. And when the state ward eventually passed Bella into Yuta's arms she immediately calmed down, snuggling into his chest. 

"Congratulations," she spoke softly as Bella's eyes began to flutter closed, her head on Yuta's chest and Sicheng's hands petting her hair. 

"She's gonna to have a childhood nothing like mine: the best ever," Sicheng mumbled. 

~~~~~~~~~~

"No we have to deliver it at 9:30 am! Not 7:30 am!" Xiaojun cried. 

"Are you kidding? That is after the camp opens!" Kun yelled back. 

"But the campers haven't even arrived yet! It's just for the counselors!" 

"How the hell are we still dating?" 

At Kun's outburst, Xiaojun's angry expression turned into a chuckle. Slowly, Kun smiled back at him until the couple were giggling loudly with each other, just standing in the middle of that big semi truck full of fruit. 

To both of their surprise, the pair had actually hit it off when they got back to school. Xiaojun had been right, he was Kun's future boyfriend, and within a month they were together. And ten years later, they were still together, occasionally to both of their chagrin. 

But usually it was like this. They had taken over Xiaojun's father's delivery business, running it happily together. Bickering was their thing. They would be alright. 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Hi love," Doyoung spoke to his husband, stepping into his office. 

"Hi," Jaehyun answered. "How were your kids?" 

Doyoung sighed. "Didn't do the assigned reading. So...same as usual." They pulled out their matching lunches and began eating. This was the perk of working at the same high school (Jaehyun as the counselor, Doyoung as an english teacher): they could have their lunches together. 

Jaehyun sighed deeply. "I got another love note." 

"Another?" Doyoung cried before sighing. "I got one last week." 

One of the downsides of working at a high school is that them, being the youngest and most attractive teachers, got a lot of attention from the students. 

"What do you think the student body will do when they find out we're married?" Jaehyun asked with a chuckle; they'd decided to keep their relationship a secret, as a fun little game. 

"Be very confused, probably," Doyoung answered.

~~~~~~~~~~

"Yuta and Sicheng are getting their adopted kid today," Yukhei said, putting on his exercise clothes and sparing a brief glance at his phone. 

"No more surrogates in our group I guess," Jungwoo answered, a toddler in both of his arms. "They must have learned their lesson from us." 

Three years ago, Yukhei and Jungwoo had decided they wanted a kid, so they had hired a surrogate. But by complete accident the mother had gotten pregnant with quintuplets. Jungwoo and Yukhei couldn't bear to let any of them go, so now here they were, three years later, with five kids. Jungwoo had to quit his job and become a stay at home dad, but they loved it, no matter how chaotic the house was. 

Yukhei looked around at the mess on the floor, grabbing his keys and phone to go out to his job as a personal trainer. "Why don't you text Johnny and Taeil to see when they can take the kids?" 

~~~~~~~~~~

Jeno and Jaemin, although far from their high school days, were leaving such a building in Jaemin's car. 

"I think we did well, right?" 

"Right." 

The two had built a career out of their worst conflict: they worked as part of a youth education group, giving teens sex ed and discussing abstinence and readiness. Their decision to wait had changed everything, made everything better, and they hoped they could help young people as much as they had helped themselves. They always liked taking things slow: they weren't married, didn't have any kids, and were just debating even getting a dog. But they were still together. And everything felt just right. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Far away in a high rise in New York City, Donghyuck was just coming home from work. Only it wasn't the late afternoon, it was one in the morning. But Mark was still up. 

"Hey love," Mark said groggily, looking up from his laptop and scattered papers. 

"Still writing?" Donghyuck asked, kissing his husband's cheek. 

"Yep. I dunno how I'm going to top the last play." 

"Cast me!" Donghyuck cried, holding Mark tight. 

As soon as college was over, Mark and Donghyuck had moved to New York City, fulfilling their respective dreams of writing for Broadway (Mark) and being on Broadway (Donghyuck). Everyone had laughed at them but somehow, they had both been successful. They were truly living the dream. 

~~~~~~~~~~

Jisung and Donghyuck always got home from work at the same time, but going to different apartments in the same building. Like Donghyuck and Mark, Chenle and Jisung worked on Broadway too, although Chenle was a vocal coach and Jisung was a choreographer. 

"Hi love," Jisung said, throwing open the door and looking around. He looked down at the floor, confused out of his mind, when he saw his boyfriend kneeling there. He chuckled. "Wh-what are you doing?" 

With a nervous look in his eyes Chenle pulled a box out of his pocket, opening it to reveal a simple silver band. 

"Jisung, will you marry me?" 

Jisung threw all thoughts from his mind; the weirdness of proposing at one am in their messy apartments with no fanfare, and just smiled. It was so damn Chenle and all he could do was lean down and peck his boyfriend, no, fiance, on the lips. 

"Of course...of course." 

~~~~~~~~~~

"Who's gonna pick that up?" Yangyang asked, pointing to an abandoned can on the ground. 

Hendery scoffed. "You." Yangyang rolled his eyes and stuffed it into his pocket. "Still haven't gotten rid of your rich boy ways." 

"You should be thankful for my rich boy ways! Where would Camp Purple be without it?" 

Hendery sighed. "True." 

The pair were actually at Camp Purple, walking hand in hand between the cabins and the grass, late at night. Five years ago the owners of Camp Purple, two former hippies, had gotten too old to run the camp and decided to retire. Nobody wanted to buy the camp and it was about to go out of business until Yangyang swooped in and spent most of his trust fund to buy the place. Now they owned it (Hendery by proximity of being Yangyang's boyfriend), just checking it out before camp started the next day. They shared a smile. This place meant so much to them; it was where they fell in love, where their best friends fell in love. Now it was theirs forever, safe forever, for more kids to find friendship and love until the end of time. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and...there it is! Wow. I cannot believe this whole trilogy is officially done. I've worked so hard on it and it's weird yet cool to think it's really, truly complete! Thank you so, so, so much to everyone who read, commented, left kudos, etc. You all mean the world to me and truly keep me going as a writer. I truly love and appreciate you all. 
> 
> Quick note about the text: a lot of people asked me about jeno's sexuality, aka whether he was ace or just not ready. I decided to leave the ending ambiguous bc I think both scenarios deserve representation, and it's really up to your interpretation as the reader. I hope that's satisfying enough~!
> 
> What's next for me as an author? Many things! To start, I saw a comment asking to see what would happen when mark's friends finally realized donghyuck was real and not made up and...i wrote a tiny little one shot of it! You can find that here or on my aff. 
> 
> The next story I'm going to write is a edited repost from another account of mine, about the dreamies having a wild summer together in the summer before college. You can find that here or on my aff
> 
> I'm also going to be writing a couple oneshots, so keep an eye out for those! I won't spoil to much but there will definitely be a nomin, a kunten, and a dojae! 
> 
> Thank you all so much again for taking this journey with me. I love you all so much and can't wait to see you on the next story!
> 
> Love, 
> 
> RainbowDonkeys


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